#FINALLY got the madness seal though like good god

[littlejuicebox]

Midnight Chimes 4 / Ringleader

Pairing: Astarion x F!Reader Warlock.

Word Count: 2,415

Summary/Setting: You and Astarion have met before, though you think it meant more to you than it did to him. You are an apothecary shop owner that has recently gained some mysterious Warlock powers; Astarion is, in your eyes, a rake that you wouldn’t trust as far as you can throw him. You two run into one another again after the nautiloid crash.

Preview:

It hadn’t really been you that found the three new party members, after all. It had been your patron. The blasted thing seemed to alternate between completely ignoring you and positively strong arming you into submission.  And it seemed unfortunately hellbent on collecting every straggler along the way of this little adventure. Though you supposed the cleric, the githyanki, and the Blade would likely prove to be more useful additions than the pale elf sitting nearby.  But how could you explain the connection to the celestial being to Gale or anyone else if you did not truly understand the connection yourself? How could you explain they were putting their trust in the wrong person for the job? Gods, you needed to get back to Baldur’s Gate and head to Sorcerous Sundries. Surely they would have some information about this unwilling bond. And speaking of unwilling bonds…

Warnings: eventual smut and gore 18+ / in game spoilers / angst, trauma, fluff

A/N: Finally feeling (almost) 100% back to my normal, healthy self! Thank you for the good vibes and well wishes! <3

The warlock, the wizard, and the rogue.

This little group started off with the makings of some ridiculous fairytale your parents would have read to you before bed.

Though, despite your parents wishes, you hadn’t really been a child interested in fairytales and make believe. Your penchant for pragmatics had developed early on, and before long mama and papa had all but given up on their dreams of a perfect princess daughter. In her place stood some sort of mad scientist… at least in their eyes.

You hadn’t actually been mad. Not then, at least. Though you were starting to worry that between the parasite and your patron, you might truly be going crazy now. No doubt the two were at war, trying to determine who would wrestle ultimate control of your mind.

Should you simply choose between the lesser of two evils, when your fate already feels sealed as it is? 

Gale and Astarion had blindly followed your lead the first day, and remained silent every time you decided to stop and change course, prodded in another direction by the celestial being playing with your psyche. This abrupt switch in traveling plans led you all to Lae’zel, where you convinced the tieflings to let her go, and Shadowheart, as she desperately tried to break open the door of some abandoned ruins. 

Astarion had simply picked the lock of the ruins, earning him some clout among the others for his skill set and further suspicion from you. After all, why exactly did a man like Astarion have any need for a skill like that? 

Subsequently, the five of you explored the dank, dilapidated building. After downing a handful of humanoids and some reanimated corpses, the group happened upon a strange, skeletal being named Withers. He said he would see you again soon.

After a relatively restless night in camp, you all happened upon the Grove on the second day of exploration. Some druid named Halsin is missing, though it turns out he may be the answer to your little predicament, Nettie tried to poison you (stupid, really, to try to poison an apothecary with one of the most basic tricks in the book), you saved a little tiefling thief from death, and then you met Wyll… all in a couple of hours.

The Blade of Frontiers is looking for some devil he’s supposed to kill; he’s also got a tadpole in his head, and like Gale, seems in relatively good spirits for such a grim situation. Those two seem suspiciously well-adjusted. 

The entire journey thus far had only been two days long and exceedingly… well, odd. 

It was certainly a much different experience from your day to day of brewing potions and tending the shop. You wanted nothing more than to return to the comforts of city life. But instead, you were forced to be the unwilling ringleader of this circus, despite your protests on the matter.

You are discussing your concerns about leadership with Gale as the group takes a short rest not far from the Grove. Wyll is gathering the last of his supplies and will meet up with all of you in mere moments. 

“Oh, but you’re doing a fantastic job, Demetria!” Gale exclaims, somehow unfailingly supportive of a woman he barely knew. 

Oh, how you wished to trust anyone half as much. 

“You have such remarkable intuition. We wouldn’t have found Shadowheart, Lae’zel, Wyll, or all this great loot without you!” He continues, before gesturing to a handful of gold and scrolls while positively beaming.

The wizard clasps a friendly hand on your back and then scans the surrounding area. He smiles at you once more, “Now I plan to make myself useful and harvest some flora! If you plan to make use of that newly procured cauldron, I best give you materials to work with.” 

You smile softly and nod at the wizard before he disappears into the shrubbery. Brewing potions was easy; you could craft all the basic ones by memory alone. But leading a group of people through the wilds based on some sort of fabled intuition and instinct? You weren’t so sure about that. 

It hadn’t really been you that found the three new party members, after all. It had been your patron. The blasted thing seemed to alternate between completely ignoring you and positively strong arming you into submission. 

And it seemed unfortunately hellbent on collecting every straggler along the way of this little adventure. Though you supposed the cleric, the githyanki, and the Blade would likely prove to be more useful additions than the pale elf sitting nearby. 

But how could you explain the connection to the celestial being to Gale or anyone else if you did not truly understand the connection yourself? How could you explain they were putting their trust in the wrong person for the job?

Gods, you needed to get back to Baldur’s Gate and head to Sorcerous Sundries. Surely they would have some information about this unwilling bond. And speaking of unwilling bonds…

Astarion is perched on a fallen log, basking in the midday sun’s rays. He’s the picture of relaxation, as if this entire sordid affair is a holiday away from Baldur’s Gate.

Sure, the pale elf had been helpful in battle, and he seemed to have a strange knack for opening locks, but as far as participating in camp efforts went, he certainly left a lot to be desired. You should have guessed as much. With the princely attitude and haughty confidence, it was likely he was merely another spoiled, rich elf. He reminded you of…

Nevermind.

You look to Shadowheart, hoping to pursue a conversation with the woman, but she is a few feet away, resting on her knees in prayer. Lae’zel is also preoccupied as she meticulously sharpens her already deathly blade. You’ve spent almost all day trying to intentionally avoid Astarion and keep any conversation with him to a minimum. But as everyone else seems busy doing their own thing, you’re left with no choice but to take a few minutes of reprieve near the rogue. 

You sigh and nestle yourself on the ground, unwilling to take the empty spot on the log next to Astarion; sitting like an animal in the dirt seemed the better option for your pride. As you lean back to stretch your aching muscles, the warm country breeze picks up, swirling around the elf’s silver curls. You are sitting downwind from the rogue, and the gust pushes a whiff of bergamot and rosemary in your direction. 

You can’t help it. The fragrance angers you. Astarion hadn’t even written to you once, even to send a simple rejection or at least compliment your sample. He’d wasted your time on your last few hours of vacation three years ago. All for what, exactly? 

He hadn’t even gotten to bed you, which had surely been his goal, in the end. 

You glare at him, in all his world-endingly beautiful privilege, as he simply lounges about in the sun as if nothing is wrong.

“It seems you liked my perfume sample enough to procure a rip off of it, but not enough to write.” You state coolly, watching the pale elf as he snaps his eyes open to study you. You notice him thinking, no doubt calculating some sort of smooth response.

“You can save the piss-poor excuses, Astarion.” You sigh, now reaching into your pack, trying to find the small vial of perfume oil you’d had inside your robes when that ship snatched you up. You open the vial and take a deep breath, basking in the comfort of familiarity.

It smelled like home. Like your quaint little townhome, in Waterdeep. Too bad scents can’t transport you back in time… at least not literally. 

There are a few beats of silence as Astarion watches you.

“I do apologize for not recognizing you before, and for not writing…” He begins, slowly, as if trying to soothe a wild animal, “I lost your card. I have a tendency to be… forgetful. And I lose things a lot. But, I did quite like the scent, as you can tell.”

You nod, acknowledging the apology but not willing to acquiesce any further. You cannot decipher if Astarion’s words are the truth or if they are simply honeyed lines meant to subdue you. Your pinky finger presses against the perfume bottle’s rim and you rub a bit of the fragranced liquid behind your ears.

The wind shifts, blowing your thick, dark hair forward around your face, obscuring your vision. You cap the small vial and then quickly tie your hair back. When you are able to see again, Astarion is almost gawking at you, scarlet eyes blown wide in surprise. 

He shifts and recovers quickly, jerking his gaze away and running a hand through his windswept curls. When he speaks, his voice has a manufactured, airy nonchalance to it, “It is quite windy out here, isn’t it?”

You don’t respond, and he turns to face you once again. His jaw tenses for a moment, and then he leans back, assessing you once more. He tries another tactic.

“That is… another lovely scent that you’re wearing.” He murmurs, and this time, the genuine, hesitant intrigue in his voice catches you off guard.

“Thank you,” You begin, and despite yourself, you are flattered by his statement. You truly love when others notice and compliment the artistry of your craft. You shrug and offer the vial to Astarion. Perhaps a small olive branch is due, if the two of you are stuck tethered together for who knows how long. 

The rogue takes the bottle and inhales the fragrance, and then he emits a noise that sounds something like a soft moan or groan. It’s a deep, uninhibited sound from the back of his throat, almost as if he’s absolutely losing himself in the scent. When he focuses on you again, there’s a relaxed look in his eyes paired with a soft, unguarded smile. It reminds you of the way he looked at you in your parent’s tavern. 

“Delicious…” He murmurs, his tone dropping into that salacious one he’d used on you at the tavern all those years ago, when asking if you planned to murder someone with poisons. Something about the way he said the word while staring directly into your eyes, his pupils blown from the fragrance he’d just inhaled, made your face grow hot.

You aren’t interested in a rake, and you won’t be fooled again, you remind yourself. No matter how beautiful the bastard truly is. 

You extend your hand out, motioning for the vial and he obliges with a disappointed tut.

“It’s a combination of lavender, sage, and vanilla.” You explain, tucking the precious vial back into your pack.

“And what else? There’s something else, isn’t there? It’s the same thing that was in the sample you gave me.” He responds, eyebrow cocked in curiosity.

You laugh in genuine surprise, “Good nose. Are you trying to steal my recipe so that when you return to Baldur’s Gate, you can have an exact duplication instead of the lesser version you have now, Astarion?”

You are partly joking, partly serious. 

The elf shakes his head, brows crinkling together in absent thought, “No… merely curious, I suppose. I’ve never smelt anything quite like your concoctions. I have to admit the memory of the scent from that night has… stayed with me. I would have written to you to tell you as much, if I could have. If I hadn’t… lost your card.”

You squint your eyes. There is something genuine in Astarion’s statement, despite the strange excuse about losing the card. Sure, he may have truly lost it. But then, he could have simply returned to the Drunken Dragon and asked your cousin for your address.

The next time you visited your family on holiday, after your conversation with the rake, your cousin indicated the elf hadn’t been by since that night. When you asked about Astarion every year, feigning nonchalance, your family always indicated he hadn’t been seen. 

It was almost as if he were avoiding the Drunken Dragon altogether for those three years.

You’d ultimately assumed he moved away… or perhaps died, murdered by one of his jealous lovers.

“It’s dragonsblood… just a drop.” You admit, eyeing the silver-haired elf with suspicious curiosity.

A sudden bark of laughter escapes Astarion’s lips. And then his head tips back and he positively cackles in a mixture of amusement and delight. He seems to find this information exceptionally hilarious. Your brows stitch together in confusion as you watch the rogue chortle.

Sure, it was an unusual additive. But it wasn’t exactly hilarious, was it? 

“Dragonsblood!” He exclaims, clapping his hands together in front of him as his eyes crinkle with mirth, “How… unique. You are quite the artist, Demetria.”

You feel the flush rise in your cheeks at the compliment while you murmur another thank you. Surely he’s flattering you, trying to ingratiate himself and hoping you’ll forgive his slight against you, isn’t he? 

Astarion’s eyes flit between yours now, and he hums in thought, “You look… different. From my memory at the tavern.”

“Really? Well you didn’t actually remember me at all until the parasite helped you, so I’m not quite sure how reliable your memory of me is. You look the same as I remember.” You deadpan, instantly trying to deflect from his observation. 

You know what he means… the ring hadn’t just affected your mind. It has permanently altered the color of your eyes into a strange purple, reminiscent of the cosmos itself. But you aren’t ready to share anything about your patron or the damn ring with anyone else just yet.

Astarion cocks his head, and he is about to say something more, but then Gale is bursting back through the brush. His eyes are wide with apprehension as he looks between you and the rogue. The concerned expression on your otherwise affable campmate causes everyone in the vicinity to quickly rise to their feet.

Gale grimaces as he addresses his new traveling companions with some level of unease, “I think you all might want to see this.”

And then he disappears back into the brush without another word. Part of you thinks you shouldn’t follow him, but you do anyway. After all, how could this possibly get stranger than it already is? 

Your patron is laughing again. Poor little apothecary, you have no idea.

[cloudyswritings]

Yes… I am the silksong now!!

My thoughts and headcanons on Hornet. I’ll be real I’ve kinda been ignoring her because I’m terrified of having to tag silksong headcanons, I’ve seen the fucking Reddit. Anyway, enjoy my ramblings.

So I think that a Hornet qualifies as a pale being, she was born to one and has a pale mask of one. More than that she qualifies for being in godhome(a low bar ik, looking at you vengefly king).

She isn’t really a god per-se but definitely is a higher being on par or stronger than the great knights.

She obviously considers herself a spider but overall she inherited very little from Herrah.

Id say she only really got the fangs and dietary needs

Shes absolutely an obligate carnivore, so don’t expect her to be eating plant matter of any type. She does the whole inject her meal with venom to dissolve it and slurp it up deal

this is mostly because even though she’s got the full Wyrms arsenal of teeth and a Wyrms digestive tract her mouth is very small and she only has pedipalps and fangs externally. This means it’s very hard for her to eat any solid food/get it down to where her throat teeth can break it down

So interestingly her body color in combination with the vessels may actually tell us more about the pale kings- see both she and the vessels have black chitin suggesting it may be inherited from the king.

She also has both her fathers number of eyes and limbs, something that infuriates her deeply.

I don’t feel that the hornet we see in canon is her final molt, mostly because it seems like the sealing of THK functionally stopped time in Hallownest. I imagine once they’re free and the Radiance is dead she’ll probably undergo one last molt.

I think her missing limbs(she has 4 that we know of meaning she’d have 4 more as a spider) will actually end up growing into wings with said molt.

She also inherited her aptitude for mechanical stuff from the king. It seems like she makes all of her own stuff. Plus the crafting system and buzz saws in silksong support this.

She likes buzzsaws

I imagine if we could get a better look at the light she casts it’d be a lot like her fathers. She’d be a pale red light that falls far and deep but bears only a subtle influence on the world, like the strumming of gossamer threads.

Shes set down threads all over Hallownest, allowing her to keep track of a ton of things at once by feeling vibrations

She does have spineretes but uses soul to supplement and extend the amount of thread she can make.

She actually really likes the white lady, mostly because of good childhood memories from visiting the palace. She was the cool mom for a while. She’s more conflicted in regards to her towards the events of the game though.

Her favorite food is probably primal aspids, but she’s got a huge soft spot for honey because of her time in the hive. She also likes soups because they’re easier for her to eat(esp the ones Ghost makes)

She has very good eyesight from Herrah, but also has face blindness that she inherited from the king. She makes do, but mostly relies on clothing, scent, and body language to identify people.

As a grub she was the only one of her brood to survive, she was part of a large brood and likely spent her earliest days in a broodsack(that’s just how spiders do shit) but ate all of her potential siblings before hatching-she doesn’t know it but this is a wyrm instinct and her father did exactly the same thing.

She’d absolutely hate that if she found out.

She suspects but isn’t sure about why she’s territorial. Unsurprisingly it’s once again a wyrm thing

Her threads are far stronger and more durable than even those produced by the best weavers, in fact some of her silk may have been used for THKs seals- she probably doesn’t remember this cause she was too young.

Is mad she inherited the kings height. Honestly she’s mad about everything she inherited from him.

She doesn’t know it but she’s fairly resistant to void, especially for someone half mortal.

Sleeps in a giant mess of quilts, pilows, and silk. It’s held slightly off the ground. This is sorta a halfway point between a Wyrms nest and the silk hammocks of the weavers.

Shes a very fidgety and light sleeper, and realistically needs far less sleep than most beings.

Her venom is ridiculously potent, like to the point of being almost unanimously fatal to mortals and weaker higher beings. It would honestly still do a lot of damage to gods too. It’s a symptom of hybrid vigor, wherein the hybrid offspring of two species tends to be stronger, larger, and overall more genetically resilient than either parent.

Hybrids also tend to be sterile.

Hornet probably couldn’t have children if she wasn’t a higher being, even then I’m not really sure she could tbh.

Given enough time and soul she could pull a metamorphosis like her father did, though she doesn’t know how.

What she’d emerge as is unclear, but she’d likely either become a spider goddess in truth. Or even more likely she’d fully become a wyrm and abandon the mortal parts Herrah gave her.

For obvious reasons she won’t do this.

Her favorite color is a toss up between red and purple.

She weaves clothing for her siblings semi-regularly. Kinda gets frustrated at how often Ghost ruins their thought. They’re rough on clothing ig.

She didn’t inherit her fathers ability to burrow, but some of the instincts remain. She’s very frustrated at this.

She’s kinda bad at rembering names too, she gets embarrassed by this and it’s part of why she doesn’t stay anywhere long enough to get to know the bugs there.

Has a charm that was created from Herrahs regrets. It doesn’t do anything but give off the faint sense of a clawed hand on her shoulders and the faint whispers of the lullaby Herrah used to sing to her.

it’s still her single most prized possession

Her needles is a close second and was made of pale ore taken directly from the Pale Wyrms corpse. It’s the one thing her father gave her she loves.

he gave it to her as a gift for her being given a name. He likely used his foresight to figure out how large she’d be as an adult and made it in anticipation of that.

She can go an exceedingly long time without a meal. This was super helpful during the infection when uninflected prey was rare at best.

With age she is becoming more and more powerful as a higher being and will likely eventually become a goddess proper.

She has the lifespan of a Wyrm but doesn’t really know it yet and chalks her remarkable age up to the blurring of time during the infection. Despite this she’s still a child by wyrm standards and has many, many, many years left to live.

Most bugs are absolutely shocked to hear about her actual age.

Lace will be for sure, and she’ll probably live to regret threatening her.

Shes super fast, like almost impossible to track I’m combat at times, this is actually because of her use of both wind and soul magic along with the thread based spells of the weavers.

Her shell is covered with intricate and detailed carvings, this is essentially the weaver version of tattoos.

Im genuinely not too sure if her mask is actually her face like it is for the pale king or just a mask like for Herrah. I lean towards it being her face though.

The bell cult caught her while she was sleeping and that’s the only reseal they survived the encounter.

id say there’s probably a good chance of her ascending to godhood as a possible ending to silksong.

Doesnt really have a sense of humor but does find puns and dad jokes hilarious(they were the only jokes the pale king told when she was little)

Theorectically given enough prep time and motivation she could place webs all over the city of tears(or a similarly sized city) and pull all of the buildings down in one go.

She might also be able to do the whole puppeting corpses thing that happens in the beasts den.

She needs a certain amount of metal in her diet thanks to being part wyrm. It’s really hard for her to find in pieces small enough to fit into her mouth.

Some crack/non-serious headcanons

She’s absolutely a chain smoker on par with Grimm- you know why

When she says Shaw it’s because as a kid she couldn’t say saw, the king would be so damn proud.

She’d be so good at putting up Christmas lights. Like the best even.

secretly loves holidays, could pull of a mean Santa impression by just fucking hustling down peoples chimneys and stealing their cookies. She’d even have a big ass silk bag full of toys.

Maybe she does this for Hallownest once it’s built?

that’s it’s, this is how she ascends to godhood

Hornet is bug Santa.

[ro-botany]

I never ended up finishing Shadows of Valentia (I know, I know, I’m getting to it), so it was... probably about a year or so after the game came out that I heard anything about the extra Grima backstory it introduced. At first I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. I didn’t know if the Big Bad Evil Guy in Awakening really needed that much backstory, given that at the time I felt their role in the story was as a force of nature more than an individual.

Now that it’s had time to stew though, and my interest in Awakening has been piqued again by that Risen King Chrom unit in FEH... I’ve been doing some thinking on that whole situation, and I might be changing my mind. It adds some interesting flavour to Grima and to Robin.

I’m a bit fuzzy on the timeline of Archanea’s history, but the important part for right now is, of course, Forneus. The man who created Grima. There’s a lot of Frankenstein DNA in Grima’s origins, enough that I feel like it HAS to be intentional.

We’ve got a scientist consumed by grief over the death of a loved one who starts experimenting with creating life, who manages to make a creature, only to near immediately find terrifying. The scientist eventually tries to kill their creation and dies in the process. Similar too is the stories’ insistence that the creations are inherently bad, were evil from the very start... in direct contradiction to the order of events begging you to sympathize with the creature.

A young Grima, barely a baby, smiled at their creator; and their creator thought that terrifying. They were only a few months old when their own father tried to kill them and they were forced to defend themself. They were sealed in a labyrinth for centuries, in total isolation save for the risen dead. When they finally lay eyes on another living human—Alm and Celica and allies, bearing weapons no less—of course they attack. The only contact they’ve had with living humans thus far is their dad who tried to kill them. Alm and Celica destroy Grima’s physical body, and... presumably, they find a way out after that, since the seal on the door is gone now.

(I know Forneus writes about the young Grima supposedly planting “violent thoughts” in his head. But that feels a bit like bullshit to me, honestly. One of Awakening’s themes is that you are not defined by your bloodline. Why would we backtrack on that and say this baby came out of the test tube already advocating for genocide? Hell, why are we trusting Forneus’ opinions on that to begin with? He’s a deeply unethical mad scientist who regularly murdered people for his experiments, I’m pretty sure he was having and acting on violent thoughts long before Grima grew a consciousness.)

Despite that fantastically rocky start to life, m!Grima’s 5* level 40 dialogue in Heroes suggests that Grima might have even tried to get along with humans for a time. I mean, just look at this.

[Humans] have no qualms asking for divine assistance when it meets their fickle needs... But how quick they are to shun their benefactors once they get what they desire. They become arrogant and make the same mistakes repeatedly, incapable of learning the folly of their ways. They claim their actions are for the good of others, but that's merely a show of self-indulgence. Humans are selfish.

That sounds like they’ve had time to observe humans. After they got out of the labyrinth they must’ve spent time just... around people. Either they witnessed what happened to other dragons-regarded-as-gods, or they themselves tried out being a god for a while (seems likely, given Plegia), and felt like their early experiences with humans were only getting proved on the large scale over and over again.

And if all of Forneus, Alm, Celica, and the allies of the latter two decided at a glance that Grima was evil and needed to be destroyed, how many more times did people try to destroy Grima after that? How many people took advantage of their powers, only to “shun their benefactor” later? What does that do to a person’s worldview and their view of themselves when they’re already predisposed to fear and hatred due to their early experiences?

Grima’s insistence that one’s destiny is rigid and immutable, their self image as an incarnation of despair—it all makes a lot more sense with this context. Grima is Frankenstein’s monster writ large, born of a man’s grief, named an abomination from birth, given the powers of a god and a thousand years of reasons to wield them for destruction. “The ugliness of mankind has turned me repulsive. It's the world that wants me to be evil.”

Whatever else you think of them, there’s a tragedy in a monster that is only so because they were never given the chance to be anything else.

[animentality]

Gods I was kinda into DurgexGortash before but after following your blog for few days I just can't stop thinking abut them. I think my Druge is gonna have a really REALLY hard time resisting siding with Gortash, even though the entire party will probably think he finally went mad. He is gonna reject Bhaal and do his best to dismantle his own world-ending plan but killing Gortash? This horrible slaver whom he doesn't even remember? Who hurt his sweet tiefling friend? Who... somehow... makes him feel... happy? How am I even supposed to explain it to Wyll? To Karlach??? Arghhh

My poor paladin's confusion at his own feelings is delicious I tell you. For the first time I really don't know how am I going to end his campaign.

OK BUT I DID THE EXACT SAME THING????

I was playing the goody two shoes for my ENTIRE campaign, until I got to Gortash.

I skipped both of the quests that I thought he would hate, the Steel Foundry and the Iron Throne.

Even though I knew that his fate was sealed, I still wanted to be on his side, just for a little while. I wanted him to be there, at the very end, even though I knew it wouldn't last.

It's so fucking dumb.

He's pixels on a SCREEN.

But I wanted to keep him.

And I did like...every good thing before that.

So trust me, I get it.

I was playing a good guy...but because of my own headcanons and delululand durgetash infected brain, I skipped two whole quests and gave myself a different ending, JUST because I am attached to an Enver Gortash that barely exists in game.

I KNOW that I'm crazy!!!

I KNOW that Enver Gortash is not that deep!

But I am obsessed with him. I am obsessed with Dark Urge.

I hurt when I think about them, separately, and even worse when I think about them together.

And I know I'm certifiable. I'm going off like.

A note, and one scene.

But it was real enough to alter my goddamn gameplay.

not the second time around, because I do want this one achievement....but my first time, yes.

I altered my RP for that man.

I broke character for him.

[nijigasakilove]

OH MY GOD TIMESKIP TAMA DESIGN, MOMMY. 😭 so good having her back in the story, but she left as soon as she arrived ugh. I guess this cour is truly going to be all about Senya and Shinsuke and they don’t want to detract from that at all. Praying the day comes again when the original squad are reunited 🙏🏾

“She really idolises you, how did you trick her” no because really how did Tsukiko come to adore and respect Shinsuke so much? Dude is so irresponsible as we saw later in the episode lol. But we finally got the backstory about what happened to Senya and Shinsuke and why they ended up in Tsukiko village. It’s all the mountain goddess’ fault eh?

While part of me hates that Shinsuke couldn’t see the deal thru and have the mountain goddess restore Shakugan, I also know she would never want him to allow a kid to be killed just to save her. Tbf the Mountain Goddess was also way too kill happy with Senya, he did just get unsealed and his dad is sealed away still, he was understandably upset. The inner hero in Shinsuke couldn’t just let him die. Launching trees as rockets is crazy though 😂

I hate that the Tama/Dragon fight got off screened so Shinsuke and the others could escape. That would’ve been so hype, but I guess they’re saving the full extent of Tama new powers for later

Shinsuke getting drunk in broad daylight and leaving the kids to deliver mail for him in a massive city like Kyoto is crazy 😭 please never let him have kids. Senya starting to regain his memories slowly is interesting. I wonder how he’ll feel about Shinsuke afterwards. I mean tbf he did save his life twice even before his memories got wiped

Respect for the mad god who showed up and even gave Senya a warning before the fight so they could fight in an abandoned area. She was clearly a victim of some mind manipulation. At least she can finally rest in peace. . Poor senya is all down on himself about fighting and killing her, but sometimes there truly is no other choice. It’s not an inherently evil or bad thing to fight

“I’d love to tell you but there’s no time lol it’ll have to wait until next time” yo who the hell was the guy at the end lmao that got meta there. Can’t wait for next episode to find out

[thegeminisage]

ok, i'm shifting into zelda mode. i have until friday to finally beat this sucker which i think has actually wound up being a good thing - i was playing less and less of it and less and less often, partly because of time, partly because of brain chemistry, but mostly because i was getting tired of the like. grind. koroks shrines lightroots etc. i don't really want to burn out on totk, so i think if i stop and play pikmin, it will be a nice little break and motivate me to come back to zelda and actually enjoy it instead of just. going through the motions. which is great because i do enjoy this game and i want to remember that i enjoy this game, and also it means i have more of it to enjoy later - at WORST, i will come back for 100% when the inevitable dlc comes out. map fatigue of doing botw twice (nearly 100%ing it the first time, doing it all the way the second time) has been my biggest problem with totk, and it's possible that i will never play either game again (or if i do it will be a very, very, very, VERY long time from now, like at least a decade), so ultimately i'm not mad about stretching it out to make it last longer than just one summer. it's going to be a REALLY long time before we get another zelda. as in, i could very well be in my 40s by then. might as well shorten the wait if i can

anyway the first order of business is to go back and finish the mineru quest. i wanna enjoy actually having her in my party for awhile before i take her to the final boss fight - i should have done it ages ago lol

oh yeah i quit bc of a hinox lol but he was super easy

deeply unfortunate: found several enormous piles of minable rock. which i felt compelled to break all of even though it wasn't fun. the good new is one of them was made of zonaite somaybe soon i can upgrade my battery again

another giant pile of zonaite. im thrilled to have the mats but like...please let me do something else now lol. even mineru's arms have durability. i need my weapons. i've used like 40 bombs. i can't do this with yunobo over and over

also love and light to mineru but she is straight up in my way, and at this point in the game i can't dismiss her. like she wants to be close so she can kneel so i can piggyback and the mech is awesome when im in the mood for it but i am trying to do something. and she makes so many noises also. i think the sages, controlswise, are my least favorite gameplay element of this. they are SO. ANNOYING. i wish there was a limitation where only one could walk around with you at once and the rest were mapped to buttons lol

ok, got it mined. now to the actual spirit temple

aww i like the music here. i like the little lightroot piano cue. i wish i had an actual lightroot lol my hearts have been decimated

little bit worried about this boss.

oh shit i was exploring the arena and fell into the water while riding the mech and now i cant find her?! is she ok......................

oh whew there she is. rip i wanted to go get that big poe...i guess not. i'm sure after the fight i'll be teleported out and even if not it is so much swimming in the dark

oh SHIT evil construct?? DARK MINERU??? why can we have dark mineru but not dark link???

aaaah the old electrified fence arena

i wish i hadnt had to use a rocket to get in here. this fight feels slow and clunky without the benefit of a fan on mineru's back

FOUR ARMS?? OH SHIT WE GOT GENERAL GREIVOUS OVER HERE

GOT HIS ASS

oh my god it's MINERU like it was mineru but now she looks like a person and not a robot

oh god is she gonna give me a CUTSCENE?

like we just got one but am i gonna get another memory

THE

MURAAAAALLLLLLLL

this is breaking so much lore.

NOT THE HYRULE CASTLE THEME

oh a man of great evil here we go show me the boy it's been too long

SCREEEEAM THERE HE LITERALLY IS!!!!!!

oh my god the theme from that very first announcement trailer

THE SHOT FROM THE TRAILERS!!!!!!!

HOLY SHIT ZELDA USING RECALL BABYGIRL YOU ARE SO COOL

YOOOOOOOOO

rauru sealing ganondorf with the fma scar movement. he threw his whole body weight behind that fist 😏

this is gay

IM LOSING MY WHOLE ASS MIND. REMEMBER THIS NAME: LINK. AND THE MAIN THEME STARST PLAYING

AND AT THE BEGINNING. IN THE VERY FIRST CUTSCENE. I REMEMBER SCREAMING OUT LOUD BECAUSE HE RECOGNIZED US. HE REMEMBERED. THE NAME

holy shit. holy shit!!! they literally are just frozen like that just like in my movie pitch <3

ANOTHER cutscene?? i am literally eating

WAHHHH fi's theme

oh im wailing she and mineru love each other so much...neither of them wants to lose the other bc theyve already lost sonia and rauru :(

GOD ZELDA BEING WILLING TO DIE FOR LINK...girl they said you WONT be able to change back ik bc of spoilers that she does but AAAAAA

idk why all the zonai are so long and wiggly. like kaminoans. i don't like it

"even if my body should perish i will be with you in spirit" zelda about to lose mom #4 :(

oh NICE i have unlocked some cool zonaite shopping options...which i refuse to use until i max out my battery, lol

wow. i even got to get those poes

popped out of the spirit temple and was able to grab a lightroot. perfect stopping point bc now i have stuff i have to do lol

[soul-dwelling]

Do you think Medusa was one of the most powerful of the witches or did her "succes" stem from the willingness to be so proactive, no matter the cost?

I’m not satisfied that any material from the comics or the anime give a good answer. 

Let’s try to group together all the magic into some broader categories (thanks to the Soul Eater Wiki for a lot of this): 

Math (calculations, spatial, vectors)

Destruction (and its polar opposite, healing)

Elements (ice, fire, thunder)

Transformation

Summoning 

Mind and Emotional Control

The most powerful magic that I can remember from the series tends to be the mathematical magic, the stuff used to seal the DWMA, to teleport characters from the Moon, and to help Kilik aim Azusa at the Moon. (I’m oversimplifying the terms: I know the spatial magic is distinct enough from the math magic, but it is about predicting space, math is about looking at spaces, so that’s what I’m calling it.) Medusa, Free, and Eruka are all able to use it. And what are Medusa’s vectors if not spatial magic? Seeing as Free’s math magic seems to owe to Mabaa’s eye, I imagine Mabaa too is good at it, as she did  help get everyone off the Moon. We’re shown Kim and the Chupa Cabra witches also use it to get people into the Book of Eibon. 

But it’s kind of weird how that is one of the few really big forms of magic in the canon. The others are either summoning items and familiars (Noah pulling stuff out of the Book, Eruka summoning tadpoles, Kaguya changing clothes), all of which is similar enough to transformation magic in terms of making one thing disappear and another thing pop up (witches’ animal forms, weapon transformations). 

Or, along the poles of destruction (most witches but pretty much any offensive attack magic) and regeneration and healing (Kim).  

Then we have magic that can affect the mind and emotions. We have users such as Arachne, Medusa, and the Great Old One weaponizing Madness itself. And Shaula’s mind control venom. And the one audio drama had the love potion. 

There are few elemental magics, like Free’s ice magic, maybe Fire and Thunder’s abilities. (Holdovers from the Fire Force world?)

So, out of all of these, the math magic is the one that seems the most powerful and the most often used: it gets you around the world, it gets you to the Moon, it gets you to the Witch Realm, you can trap people, you can dodge opponents. 

But math magic is also the most popular--and almost every witch we meet uses it in some way, so it’s ironically also not that powerful despite what I just said about it seeming to be the most powerful. If everyone is using it, then that means it takes one person--Medusa--to step in and figure out ways to work around it. Sure, she uses her vector magic, so perhaps she has weaponized that magic in ways other witches haven’t. (Imagine Medusa opening a portal through someone to kill them.) 

And as you seem to suggest, if Medusa is that driven, that proactive, then I have to imagine that she is probably the most powerful of witches short of Mabaa. 

We have not seen the full extent of Mabaa’s powers, so this isn’t a fair question, and it’s not fair for me to position Medusa at a higher level than Mabaa. Maybe Mabaa has other magic abilities--maybe the magic Free has comes from her, so we have to give her the ice magic, which also means she may also be able to do other elemental magic. This is conjecture, though. 

But think about this: Lord Death is the god of this world; Mabaa is the only other person we have been told can compete with him; Medusa probably would say Mabaa has more magics than she herself does, and that Mabaa is more powerful at even math magic, given how she has tended to the Witch Realm. 

And yet, despite how powerful Mabaa is, and how Lord Death is probably as powerful as her, Medusa was the one who beat Death, locked him up, got Asura out, and finalized making Crona into a world-destruction force. That is not all magic, granted--it is also just brutality, violence, and trickery. In that regard, while I think Medusa has weaponized spatial magic in a way Mabaa hasn’t, as shown by her vector magic, I do think Medusa being so proactive and willing to get herself killed to make Crona into an instrument for destruction shows she was one of the most powerful witches. 

(And she did manage to take over her own sister’s body and repeatedly cheat Death himself.)

[feelin-lo]

@aesopsbaby

Your little head cannon from anon, made me go feral. This is my retaliation. This is really rushed and is really bad so I'm sorry not sorry, this is motivation at its finest.

Blades clashed, blood was spilled, but whos?

A little backstory. Elves, high or not, work on a principal. If they stray too far from that principal then they change. That's what Orcs and Goblins are. A sub species of Elves that have "fallen from grace" per se.

And that day, Orcs ambushed the team, no one was injured, badly at least... but, for some reason, Raloris was silent for once. After they were all dead, he looked down at the bodies of orcs, silent, it was unsettling. None of them knew what was going on in Ralo's head, they never did, but Celtic, he had an idea. Celtic always knew. After that moment they had shared a few nights ago, that intoxicating passion under the glory of a meteor shower, Celtic could almost read Ralo's thoughts, just through how the man held himself.

He didn't even utter a word for hours, and it scared everyone, normally he was so loud and funny, even when he was low. They finally reached a familiar tavern, they went into their rooms and unpacked before coming downstairs again and sharing a round of drinks. Ralo sat alone, staring into the still full cup of Rum, hours after it was poured.

He was uneasy, and that made Celtic uneasy.

Suddenly, Raloris stood up and left, leaving his belongings but taking his weapons, and leaving the tavern. Celtic stood, walking to where Ralo sat and saw a sight he wasn't expecting, blood on the table and bits of cloth on the chair, that's when Celtic followed the High elf outside. He was shirtless, his shirt, cape and various dangling bits were all folded in a pile. He kept swinging at the training dummies with his polearm that were outside, he was muttering to himself and then shouting at himself, no one inside would hear him though, it's too loud.

"YOU WANNA END UP LIKE THEM?! WELL GUESS WHAT YOU USELESS SACK OF SHIT, YOU CANT. YOU ARENT EVEN WORTHY OF WHAT OUR ANCESTORS MADE OF US!" He yelled, cutting deeper into the dummy "NO WONDER FATHER HATED YOU SO MUCH! YOU CANT EVEN JUSTIFY IT." He kept going "THIS IS WHY NO ONE CARES ABOUT YOU!"

And with that, he decapitated the dummy, the stuffed head, hitting the floor. Raloris fell to his knees, sniffling, like he was crying. Since he wasn't moving anymore, Celtic got closer, able to get a better look of his teammates body, his arms and hands were decorated with bites while his torso was painted with seals and tomes.

A little Elven history lesson, like most creatures, Elves had a "Medieval" moment in their development. That was around 100 years ago, Raloris was about 21. It was right after his father died, since he was driven to madness, elves didn't know how to cure him. So they turned to their god for assistance. Painting Raloris with seals and tomes to seal the madness away.

"Raloris?" Celtic said, kneeling down and reaching a hand out, but stopping before his hand touched skin. "What?" Ralo sniffled, turning to meet Celtic's gaze "What's going on? You can talk to me you know." He said carefully.

"Do you know what Orcs are, Celtic?" Ralo asked, turning to meet him fully "Yeah, I'm aware, did it upset you when we killed them?" The leader asked but was met with a headshake "No. It just... It made me think." "That's dangerous"

"Why haven't I become a Half Orc yet? I'm so far from the ideals of my race. A disgrace to High elven kind. I'm not worthy, I'm not ANYTHING. IM NOT EVEN GIVEN THE FUCKING TIME OF DAY BY THEM!" he ranted, biting into his lip, with such a force that it drew blood, it dropped down his chin and down his chest with how deep it was.

"Elves are built upon Wisdom, correct? the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgement; the quality of being wise. You. Are wise. Despite being driven so badly into mental instability, you are still so so wise." Celtic said, taking a handkerchief from his pocket and cleaning the blood, feeling the soft skin of the High elf "You know what the highest form of Wisdom is?" Celtic asked the crying Raloris, who shook his head in response "Kindness. It's kindness"

Celtic stood, helping Ralo up and grabbing his clothes "Let's go inside, you need an early night it seems"

Once they were in Celtics room, Ralo was a little safer in mind, he felt warm, soft "I have a question Raloris" Celtic said, approaching the still shirtless elf "do you... think, about that night. Where we kissed... more than once?" He asked, looking deep into the emerald of Ralo's eyes "How could I not? I've nearly had a quarter of my life and that's only happened to me once and it was you. It's always been you." Ralo confessed, slipping his shirt back on.

"You were calm." Celtic commented, sitting down on the bed, tapping the sheets, indicating to the Elf to sit down. And he did, slowly setting himself down on the sheets, closing his eyes and sighing.

"You bite yourself a Lot, you know?" Celtic commented, sliding his hand up the forearm of the manic, lining every scar and indent. With his other hand, he went from Ralo's shoulder blades and slowly glided down, tracing his back untill he was at his waist, then lower back but never further. They agreed on that boundary ages ago. "Let's get some sleep ok?" Celtic smiled, well, tried to smile, pulling back the quilt and watching as Ralo slid in, quiet as he went.

"Ralo... Earlier, you said that No one cares about you"

Raloris looked up at that, meeting the amber in his leader's eyes "Can I show you something?"

The elf nodded.

Celtic sat on Raloris' lap, sliding down and pulling the quilt over them, he then pressed his Lips to Raloris again, tasting what he did a few days ago, and wondering why it was so sweet. Ralo returned the favour, taking Celtic deeper, he was holding his tongue in his teeth, nibbling on it, but never hard enough to hurt, they kissed again and again an again, time slowly dissapeared around them, neither man caring about where they were or if anyone saw them. Celtic was focused on calming Raloris down, while the elf just held on for dear life, letting his leader do as he saw fit. He was the wise one after all.

Soon, all of their respective visions melted away as their entire worlds became... Eachother.

[vermanaward]

dawntrail msq, 92-95

earthenshire

i'm just getting this out ahead of time. if this ends in another cheese debacle im. pls don't

apparently 'use your words to ask for things' is a concept that moblins are allergic to. god dammit

koana is that guy who studied abroad for a semester and came home all 'they do it Like This in Sharlayan We Should Too'

dont love that he's internalised so much that the foreign way is besterest, or that the writing keeps half supporting his assertions

[while standing right next to an aethyryte] whyyyyy do we have to taaaake a booooooooat

wait this is why we had that aside with the melodramatic elf wasn't it. sigh

so as well as speedrunning his character arc he's speedrun his citizenship arc. good for him i guess?

cool, role quests unlocked. time to ignore those until level 98

okay the gulool jaja fight was p fun

also i like that this whole hting isn't just. heeheehoohoo trial by combat goes brrr. he's like if izaro actually rubbed his braincells together and didn't set the empire up to fail

[koana voice] everyone will think twice about fighting us once we have advanced technology

yes that's definitely how this works. also absolutely the reason garlemald left sharlayan alone. not because sharlayan kept running away like the cowardly fucks they are.

wow. gee. lamat got herself catnapped this definitely wasn't incredibly predictable

doing the stealth section while it's pissing it down with rain so my girl has her bright white umbrella out = top tier

well. koana's not having kids the old fashioned way

and once again we all just. stand there like muppets while the bad guy retreats.

then again literally all of this could have been avoided if someone had. escorted the catgirl when she was lured into the Very Obvious Trap. sigh

either way this is going to end with one of the cats on the throne and the other in an advisory capacity. and i hate it

i had to xp grind here bc of Miscalculations. how embarassing -_-

worlar's echo

finally realising that the urqopacha day theme has the same opening as the sohm al theme. concerned about what further parallels are going to be drawn. is valigarmanda nidhogg's ex? is estinien going to get posessed again? pls say no

at least there's not a blue hair elf pld for them to kill off this time

okay so i was wrong about valigarmanda. i still expect that the seal in the city will house a boss fight, though.

new prediction: the feat of ice will start with 'strengthen valigarmanda's prison', and end up being 'actually just fucking kill it'

pretty purple bird. it's the next dungeon boss isnt it

dungeon 2 - worqor zamor

alisae green dps LMAO

how i feel during prog sometimes. tbh

krile uses aoe spells?? in dungeon??? what is this MADNESS

hot Damn i like boss 1 a lot. it's cute but also its mechanics are kinda fun

i also like that trusts don't just run to the safe spot straight away any more. little details in programming them that makes them seem more human

boss 3's no slouch either. honestly a good dungeon alround tbh

the gear is unique too. dyes too

aaay got the orc roll too

valigarmanda

...and we didn't use erenville's magic macguffin when lamat was missing because....?

WHY COULDNT WE FEED IT THE INFORMATION IN THE FIRST PLACE. christ this is so needlessly padded

the normal was pretty fun. ex hopefully will be interesting. the persistent dot on everyone after the add phase was an interesting touch. music slaps too

it occured to me about half way through that if valigarmanda is/was an auspice, it probably lost itself to aramitama at some point, which is. sad, honestly. give your local long lived sentient animal a hug before they go mad and blow the world up

also i noticed krile casting aero ii at vali and. i guess her ai script just loops aoe spells in part of it, instead of being smart enough to tell between single target and multiple targets. at least she aoes i guess.

oh. the "golden city" was amarout wasn't it. 🙃🔫

iq br'aax

so instead of using our words and just. asking someone what this recipe is, we're going to watch people and divine a particular recipe from the aether. why is this storyline so allergic to people talking to each other like adults

what am i saying this is xiv nobody talks to each other like adults. urianger least of all.

[consults crafting log] well either it's higher than level 95, requires a master crafting book, or doesn't exist. there i solved the trial can we- [dragged off stage out back]

...why the fuck is french toast a level 93 recipe

oh okay i used my words and asked someone and we were forbidden from being told this information so i guess we're just following quest markers until we stumble upon it by happenstance and exposition

oh my god alphinaud shut up about the fuckin firewood

brokering peace by appealing to a greater xenophobia is. it sure is a tactic i guess

not that he's wrong per se but like.

if there's been peace for eighty years tho, and barring the use of something like black rose, you'd have thought the cinderfields would have grown back by now. ash is a wonderful fertiliser, after all. but what do i know

(even then the east end still has more regrowth that. an old battlefield in the middle of a rainforest? okay.)

pls krile i powerleveled cul so i could afk macro my own consumables. i do not cook

i keep periodically remembering the person responsible for overseeing this expac and i'm just. yeah. the heavy handedness. yeah.

Oh Boy Parenthood Drama man

Wuk Lamat Has Two Dads (but no mom. xiv pls)

"several cutscenes" says the prompt, while there's the telltale solo instance marker around an npc. sure, jan

apparently squex did not in fact get the memo that people hate rp battles

wol: [popcorn intensifies]

mamook

we are actually visiting. an entire map during a single arc of the story. this is unprecedented. at least outide of final zones, anyway. which i know this isn't bc my shared fate and aether current trackers are half empty

you know i. i'm extremely not a fan of how it's the lizards of all the groups here that are the supremacists who are not above lying/cheating/stealing/etc. just saying

SILVERSCALES MENTIONED

actually i've been sorta wishing i could bring it up. 'yeah i beat several shades out of him for bullying harmless tonberries. who then finished him off with their knives, yes, but fucker had it coming'

why are there alkonosts here 👀 not that it really matters but. pretty birb-not-birb

man we're gearing up to Power Of Friendship the racist supremacists again aren't we

whatever. lower yak'tel is so pretty, i can't wait to fish here :3

i like how everyone assumes that we're on the level and didn't murder bakool for his blessed scales like he kinda deserved

GLOW IN THE DARK BANANAS

actually i just saw a glow in the dark skeletal alkonost and now im wondering if the glow in the dark isn't like. radiation or someshit

i guess it tracks that the one thing wuk lamat would learn from the wol would be the ability to look at an enemy who despises everything that they are and go. "FRIEND SHAPED. :D"

oh okay we're Power Of Science (And Also Friendship)-ing our way out of this

which is great and all but man. sometimes people are just power hungry dicks, you know? this is the same shit we went through in garlemald. 'waugh they were only xenophobic warmongers because they had to live in a shitty country and people were shitty to them'. which, again. werlyt author -_-

...the catboy's going to quit, isn't he

ilevel for this battle is 666. lmao

"everyone ready?" erenville: [flees]

i didnt realise roegadyn were from yorkshire

i'm going to go out on a limb here and assume the fact that kettie is still alive is connected to something in not!amaurot

im also going to crash here bc its 2am and ive been awak since [looks at clock] too early. TMORROW: WE CONTINUE

[ramblebramblefun]

Eri has finally cracked it.

All along the edges of half-baked lesson plans, descriptions of jutsu that she's never heard of and seals curling in on themselves forever, Uzumaki Raiko had laid out the future.

She knew about the Kyuubi attack.

She knew that- No. Eri can't tell him. It would- no. He's doing... He's doing better now, so much better, this would-

What horrible things to know. Is this why Sensei left?

Sensei's plans all seemed geared to stopping the Kyuubi attack. Everything that 'happens' after that is less detailed, a bullet point list rather than a terrible story

She'd predicted Kakashi and all that... Well, she'd known about Tenzou. The Sandaime hadn't even known about Tenzou, the boys had said.

Naruto seven. Shisui dies in ambush. Uchiha Massacre.

Naruto Uzumaki is seven years old. Fuck, sensei had been gone before Kushina-san was even pregnant, how did she-

Uchiha Massacre. That sounds. Bad. Sure, they're not the most... Well-liked, but...

Before that, though, there is only one Uchiha that Eri knows of that is named Shisui. They most definitely do not move in the same circles, but someone that high profile... Surely everyone would have heard if that guy was dead?

---

Eri never saw herself becoming a stalker.

She never saw this coming either. She'd thought that Muta was dead, dead, dead, but that was definitely his chakra behind the mask and his sword in her stomach and his voice saying, "Stay put," like she's some kind of dog, and gods, Eri has never been so angry in her entire life.

That fucking traitor.

Unfortunately for what is definitely fate trying to stay true to form, Muta's out of the fucking loop.

---

Stasis seals don't fix anything, and she does still have to move carefully, slowly, and she tracks that bastard down to see Shunshin no Shisui on his knees, and she should have sent a pigeon, fuck-

The first training session Team Two ever had, Sensei made them do the Kawarimi until they threw up.

Eri kind of wants to throw up now. Her (empty) eye is burning. And then-

---

This guy. Really is an elite. Not even a moment and he's back on his feet and whooshing them away.

He's holding her princess style. She does not feel very princessy right now. Actually, she's going to-

---

She does not throw up all over the fastest man alive, but it is a very near thing.

He holds her hair out of her face. That's nice of him.

She is so fucking-

---

The infamous Shunshin no Shisui looks, to her professional eye, almost as bad as she feels. He's very pale and she can't tell which one of them is shaking worse and he's staring at her like she has, like, three heads or something.

This is not a genjutsu, Uchiha. Your eyes are not necessary.

"Kakashi." She starts, and abruptly feels very proud of how steady her voice is. She doesn't feel very steady. She's pretty sure that she's older than this guy, though, so she's got to be steady. Gotta be steady...

"Kakashi." What was she going to say again?

Shisui shuts his gaping mouth. And opens it. And shuts it.

Finally, leadingly, "Kakashi...?"

"Kakashi," she says, grabbing her thoughts with all the strength blood-loss has left her, "is going to be so mad at me."

Shisui makes a very strange noise. He's also started to look blurry, which is, in her professional opinion, not a good sign.

"I need to go to the hospital," she decides. Not... Wherever they are. There's a river.

Shisui jumps like he's been electrocuted. That would be funny. She should learn some lightning jutsu. Sensei was good at them. She could Thunder Dome Muta. Bastard. A thousand smites upon him, or whatever Sensei used to say...

---

She wakes up in the hospital, feeling somehow even shittier than she did...?

Whatever. Shisui is still here. He doesn't look dead.

"Sensei better be proud of me," she mumbles thickly, and goes right the fuck back to sleep.

[the-firebird69]

We have it now huge bombs of the biggest threat and we are working on it and they're natural and they are priority and we will man up and not take any from there though people may rotate someone in and they may rotate out for a different tour and we are of course welcoming people in and if you want a different tour you're welcome to take a different tour but each and every person will be assigned to a particular item and you'll see what that means and it is very organized and very succinct and you will love it.

Another news there are attacks going on within the United States by the clones. They are fierce and they are attacking areas that they think we are in and relentlessly and the Max and us are pouring in and God help anyone who gets in the way we are terminating all of them and we're plugging up their holes and they will be checked at the border from now on if they want to go anywhere near the populace and it's happening practically in every remaining area these clonse are not those kids, but only in the respect that they don't respect anybody else ever and we are terminating tons of them and really everybody's on it and they don't stand a chance and yeah it happened today it was everybody against Max and now it's everybody against the clones and it's crazy this with the clones are the ones who are calling for people to all gang up on max now they're getting up on the clothes and they're successfully sealed off and they're pushed out and we are infiltrating like madness I can't stand it anymore there's too many parameters and there's too many things to do and we're manning up like madness and we're going to town here and we must. This occurs happens when 75% of the world's populated areas and the others were monitoring closely and we are in the tunnels, all the armies of Earth are clearing the tunnels and pretty soon we'll be at their hardware and they won't have a choice for trying to launch and we're going to block it I'm going to regret yapping and telling us off constantly and making everybody miserable in Florida deceived them badly

We have 4,500 people and punta Gorda who are missing as of yesterday thought to have been kidnapped by clones and 7,500 today and it's way too many and we came in and we started pulling them out John remillard ran by you again and said say it faster there's too many being kidnapped his head and he started going I mean out loud and I said I don't know yet I'm getting the data tonight and if you can find it you can have someone say it to you don't like the tradition of every part of the okay well I get captured by the British I mean got captured by the British. So you went around saying it he says also arguing with the stupid machine all the time and they're messing with her this is so what I said well... And there's a ton of stuff going around but that made headlines we're all being kidnapped by these clones and start bringing forces in instead of old idiots or jumping beans or whatever those idiomacks were doing oh good it's a bicycle we get to bring him to the law. It was horrible. And we are seeing what our son is saying yeah there are things going on in his life and he needs to check on them but that's okay he's got tomorrow and where hoping the things go well for him and we are making sure it does and the max are up now they saw tons of people getting kidnapped and they see why they're trying to grab our son and them away there's a way but really they want to grab them first that's because they have tons of military hardware and it's big and it's going on now that they decide to protect themselves so this place is going to be a lot more orderly.

John remillard & company are out they finally called it today and said he is a goner and we don't want to deal with it and he is being pushed out and the max called it to order and called the forg. and they agreed. Is too crazy he's too lazy lusty drugged up retarded and mentally ill and doesn't do anything but bother people and try and harm our friend here and ruin everything so they wrote up warriors and their orders to evict and to not allow him in. He said that John remillard not wanting our son to renew his agreement was part of it and they went over it and said we forgot a few things and noted that he is attacking our son relentlessly so they started going after him and did damage and are going to do more. Today was a big day and our son went all the way up to help him to get him to deposit the money safely and to show him that the taxi is not bad and that he can go up and deposit the money he can and the guy driving him is not a Mac and it's the idiot but he had a lot of people making him do it and it will happen again cuz he's been screwing him over with this illegal stock market stuff and it ties to Donald Trump but in a different stock market arena and he's been doing illegal things with it and he is going to be charged for it and they are going to pull this stupid company off and notify people that they're not responsible for taxes and that most people lost money and it's a scam and there's a class action suit and he'll get some money probably and they're going at it now. We have a ton of lawsuits against him tons of things wrong with the guy we're going after all his people and we're going to dissolve them shortly tons of people are attacking and soon Jason will attack and he's going to attack trumps in the upper Midwest and our son said and daughter that's you Jason it's not that bad oh dear God and he was hit not too badly and not in the head actually and she revised him and ask him a question the first question is how was it and he says it stinks I'm in a new body and I want my old body back and she says it's in rough shape. Tons of people see what he's saying and they're going after him he's attracted a lot of negative attention and tonight he's in the movie off and on and he comes back here and people trying to block him and they're going after his people all day and all night now same with the clones it's so horrible show now it's a little bit better. We pursue him now on special warrant and on hours and we're going to hit very hard and he wants teams out of all different kinds in his areas terminate them and draw them in with whatever attracts them.

I'm sending in units now it's kind of stuff they really dig and they're going to regret what they say and our troops need to hear it all of them are 12 ft he'll think they're his kids, truthfully they are

There's more stuff going on here in punta Gorda there's an incident every few minutes or someone is trying to take something from someone mostly they're going after John Riva Lord and company and they're taking what he has and it's not that much but they're taking it huge numbers of people are saying to take him down it's going on all day long today and they're doing it in the clones this is John greenwood was kidnapping people about 50 and yesterday about 75. He ran around saying it about Tommy f and they arrested him for kidnapping and he's wanted for it now he's running around again and they're going after his guys and pretty soon you won't have anything we are attacking we were firing him from any companies tonight and if he misses out we really see tons of warrants and he didn't miss the big meetings but he missed a bunch of meetings it's just as bad well it's the same thing and tonight we're laying off from huge companies giant ones and not mentioned yet and that we are and we will tell you that our son is slightly involved

*and it is Honda and he is here and wants to speak and shall right now..... It is my company and I am Mr Honda and my grandson is typing this orally and I have to say that I will take my company back Lock stock and barrel and fire John Riva Lord permanently from every facet of the company that you can even ever imagine he's the most annoying person and his are the most annoying people on the planet I have ever heard of these firings we've done immediately upon closure of the deal whether he shows up or not and it is set for around 2:00 a.m. eastern standard time and we know where he is and he might not make it on time. And then if he doesn't release warrants and tons of them. Would rather release warrants it's going on shortly. I'm very glad to be taking my company back we have most of it but we weren't changing anything until now and we got pushed because they're asking us if we're going to make motorcycles I'm going to change them and we have a lot changes lots of sun changes and they're super bikes and they're very easy to drive and handle and they are terrific and my grandson is new at it but his bikes are like second to none and I'm going to compete with him and he asked me to now it looks like he's regretting it but he knows what will happen and it's going to be wonders we're going to take over all of the bike sales on us and I will follow me *Kawasaki is up right now getting ready for it and he is next he is going to fire John rewarding company in a meeting right after us,

*Yamaha is after that, it's a very large company as well as Kawasaki is and they make heavy industry things and generators and all sorts of machines and you would not believe it but they make cars as well and are different name both companies do and they're very nice cars and they sell a lot of them and one of them is Nissan and that's Yamaha and Kawasaki makes a version of Toyota no, it's Infinity and our son thought it was Toyota it's very nice quality and they make a lot of them they drive them all over China. And of course Suzuki and it's one of his favorite bikes and he loved the bike that Steve fishel had too and he wants to drive it and have fun but he wouldn't let him so you rented one once and it was fun it was awkward it was so high up and they made of high Hopper and tough reason you made them high up for dumb reason and they're revamped their automobile industry and people buy them now but we'll get to change it completely and it's going to be fast and we're going to make a lot of vehicles and people buy tons of stuff. There a couple more brands no that's basically it except for heavy industry and we're not going to do that today which is tonight here in Florida but soon and we plan on revamping this company's immediately and we are retaining our sons and daughters on the board and it's going to be the hectic day.

Mr. Honda and Mrs. Honda God and Goddess of Japan

And that was him Mr Honda and he thought he was Toyota which is weird because he knew about and didn't do anything he liked favorites the motorcycle is awesome to him it's a it's a wonderful bike and beat everybody and he didn't touch it he knew it was proud of the company. He liked the name big red and you like to call him pig red and he liked the car he had it's really nice and he really loved Asimo though that was a great godsend he said. And it doesn't want to making SEMO he says he has to because he's in the family we'll have to ask permission because he didn't remember to and that's true so he's going to send it over he says yes preliminarily and even tons of them already and it's a go I'm sending it over. And have a good night now it's a few things happening though trying to read my lord it's getting antsy no it has a weirdo he is a pest. Doesn't want to talk about him he wants us to handle it and we will it's going to get going to sleep as well we have a couple more companies and then we do a quick discussion on Ghostbusters and we'll go from there in the bridge should be going in he's thinking Saturday and that's the day concrete needs to cure.

*along with the motorcycle companies in Japan we are firing John reavillard from several large Japanese companies that make a variety of things. One of them is obiashi and although they are a construction company they work in the water they make products for the construction industry and one of them is a tow line system for huge barges and it is integral to just about every operation that they do are others to. Tonight we had to buy about 50,000 of them and we went around and we told all the stuff around because we're taking over the oil rigs that are out of sea and a finishing up, and we're adding some weight to it and to push it to get done and this is the way there's a couple of the companies that we are taking over tonight Lock stock and barrel and there's no convention for these although he suggesting one for Japan and we are too and they love the idea. They love displaying the bikes and the cars and the quads and the trucks in the four wheel stuff and the big trucks all sorts of things they love that they love it they probably build the new one tonight, actually we're going to thier putting temp structures in now. And yes we have more companies

*komatsu it's a huge heavy construction excavation company huge it makes everything even mining equipment it is humongous gross sales internationally and domestic equal half of the entire industry and it's due to their performance and powerful machines. As a separate family and it's a separate dynasty and they had a lot to say and they did a lot for a lot of people as did the others but at least this company stands apart for doing large things and they're hard to do with our son says and daughter. I do too. And we need them on board and they're getting on board and they're taking everything tonight and today over there Lock stock and barrel globally and they're firing John rivenlord and company and he request that we say it that way so we are

*and in the United States there's a huge meeting tonight at the conference center downtown New York City during the mess if they're causing, it's concerned about it the taxi cab business and it's because people are getting cart around my friends and family and they don't have a lot of customers like they used to and they don't know what to do and in our son said and daughter the other day they might be able to work buses they don't want to do that. So it's going down today and there really is not much cause for it no there is there's a lot of people who need rides and they call for them and they get them because there's plenty of taxis around but right now the business is so slow that most of them are not working. We're thinking of purchasing the company but we don't know what it's going to do and if there are going to be customers. It's happening globally people just don't want to drive around with a stranger and public blessing will be one of the only places and ways to do it. And we don't have any wizard solution and we're just going to see what happens and try and work within the changes that happened with our economy regarding taxis there are some problems in New York City with the taxi system the cars are really big I can't get enough places to the left like a half a city block away and traffic is always jammed and although three wheeler or something would be nice it doesn't really help that much. And our son says and daughter maybe we should buy the company and see what the issue is at least have land in the space. And run a skeleton crew and improve it the way we think it should be and see if it improves but there are alternatives that are coming up and other companies are offering them and their offices and locations would be prime real estate we understand that too and hovercrafts are being used and we actually sell them.

It's really strange a lot of people want to be picked up on the street and we tell them they won't let us and we get it pick them up on the roof and their aggassed. We will work it out.

*another company that people should be made aware of that we are buying Lock stock and barrel and pushing each other rewarding company out of and he is getting pushed out our airliners. Jet blue, is a pretty big company inside of Schenectady New York and try to remember Lord was bothering our son with it forever and her son was like what the hell so we understand it's a big company but this guy is a miscreant and deserves none of it continue to Lock stock and barrel today and we agreed to meet him. Who sings we can't do it out I don't understand there's a few things I can't live without and when it's escaping the marshes and swamps and the other is leaving this area and it's coming up soon

Thor Freya

[therapycreature]

fought mohg in the horrible sewers for so long today his boss music is permanently playing in my brain

[frogtanii]

iwaizumi was... overwhelmed, to say the least.

the past few days had been such a whirlwind of change that hajime could barely properly process, much less appropriately react to it all, so he behaved much like a zombie, saying yes when prompted, signing papers when told, and packing up what was his entire life for the past 11 months.

wow. iwaizumi collapsed on his bed as he scanned his now barren bedroom. he’d been here for almost a year and yet, all his belongings were in boxes within a couple of days.

hajime couldn’t keep the disbelieving chuckle from escaping his chest as he leaned back on his bed, dark brown eyes trained on the ceiling.

it felt like he’d spent such a large chunk of his life trapped in this house, under the foot of the woman who he thought he’d marry but in reality, he’d been in little leagues longer than he’d been in love.

iwaizumi scoffed and rolled his eyes. yeah, “in love”. it’d been about a week since his whole life started to unravel and he had hardly seen, let alone spoken to meiko throughout that entire time.

over text, she’d sworn up and down that she loved and cared about him but as she passed by him packing his things a few days ago, she’d barely spared him a second glance.

hajime wasn’t going to lie. it hurt. he’d opened his heart up to her, something he didn’t do easily, and she’d taken his trust and used it to twist him into her weapon.

he always believed he was stronger than this — he’d never forget his mother telling him so when he was younger. he had fallen and scraped his knee yet he refused to cry to keep from upsetting his mom. iwaizumi existed to live up to what his mother thought of him but here he was, completely enveloped in meiko’s shit, doing her dirty work and following her bidding like some mutt.

god, toorū was right. he really was her bitch.

“i could hear you thinking from down the hall, iwa-chan.” speak of the devil...

oikawa stood at his doorway, leaning against the frame with a posture that seemed relaxed at first glance but if you looked a little closer, you’d notice the tenseness in his shoulders and the tightness of his smile.

hajime quickly sat up on his bed before motioning for his old friend to enter. “uh, yeah,” he began, his voice cracking a little from disuse, “i have a lot to think about.”

the light haired brunette let out an understanding hum before wandering into the room, sharp observant eyes darting to look at all the empty walls. “looks like you’re all packed.”

“pretty much,” iwaizumi nodded before the room fell into an awkward silence, the two childhood friends completely avoiding one another’s eyes.

“look, i-“

“iwa-chan, i’m-“

they both paused for a moment before bursting into laughter, the sound carrying into the hall and throughout the house.

hajime wiped a few stray tears from his eyes, shaking his head at their awkwardness. “you first, shittykawa.”

toorū gasped in halfhearted mock offense before quickly sobering up, training iwaizumi with a completely serious look. “i’m sorry and before you go on some bullshit, self sacrificing rant, you’re not the only one to blame for what happened to our friendship.”

he sighed while making his way to iwaizumi’s bed, sitting down gently beside him. “i should’ve known better, okay? i shouldn’t have let my jealousy and insecurities get in between us but i guess i got swept up in the attention, yknow? meiko is actually charming when she wants to be.”

iwaizumi nodded in agreement, knowing all too well how compelling meiko could be. the room fell into a more comfortable silence as both boys escaped into their thoughts, questions about the future of their friendship flitting throughout their minds.

“oh!” oikawa was pulled out of his own head at hajime’s exclamation, his eyes moving to observe his friend dig through his pockets to procure a thick white envelope. “here. i’d like you to give this yn.”

all toorū could do was nod, his brain short circuiting at the sight of iwaizumi’s apparent kindness to the woman he tormented for so long. “uh, what’s in it?” he ventured to ask, his soft hands toying with the sealed envelope flap.

a soft chuckle came from across the bed. “don’t be so nosy toorū, just give it to her, yeah?” oikawa rolled his eyes but obliged, the bed creaking as he stood to his feet.

“so... this is it, huh?” it was like the reality of the situation was just now sinking in — they hadn’t been close in a while but iwaizumi was still his best friend and he wasn’t quite ready to let him go.

they’d been through so much together, practically growing up together and now, they’d only see each other on holidays, if even then, and then he’d never be invited to hajime’s wedding as his best man as they’d planned and he also wouldn’t be the coolest uncle/godfather of iwa’s children and—

“fuck no,” hajime scoffed with a bright grin on his face. “thought you were gonna annoy me til the end of time shittykawa. don’t tell me you’re quitting your job now.”

the hidden meaning behind iwaizumi’s words brought tears to oikawa’s eyes and before he could stop himself, he launched his body into iwa’s arms. hajime hesitated, his hands stuttering at toorū’s sides as though he’d forgotten how to hug but the feeling passed, his arms winding around his friend’s lithe waist.

“‘m gonna miss you hajime,” oikawa’s voice came out as a broken whimper, his arms tightening around his shoulders.

iwaizumi hummed instead of responding, too afraid of his voice cracking under the weight of his emotions. they stood there for a moment but the honk of the moving truck outside signaled the both of them of their limited time.

hurriedly, oikawa wiped the tears off his cheeks before waving awkwardly at iwaizumi as he left the room with a friendly, “don’t be a stranger.”

and then he was gone.

toorū finally allowed himself to collapse into sobs on his best friends empty bed, his palms pressing into his eyes as he sat there and just let himself feel.

apparently, he wasn’t crying very quietly because it took only a few moments for you to find him, your soft footsteps alerting him to your presence. oikawa scrambled to wipe away what he knew was an unattractive mixture of tears and snot as you got closer.

you were one of the last people he wanted to see him like this.

“hey,” you whispered, standing a few feet away from him. “um, i know this is probably a bad time but i just wanted to thank you for apologizing? back at the awards show?”

toorū sniffed as he looked up at you with confusion written on his face. “what? you shouldn’t thank me for apologizing. ‘s common courtesy.”

you laughed softly, nodding in agreement. “well, not always. so, thank you.” finished with your piece and not too keen on lingering where you weren’t wanted, you moved towards the door but were swiftly stopped before you got there.

“um, here. it’s from iwa-chan.” you gaped at the thick envelope oikawa was handing you before taking it and opening it, a low curse falling from your lips.

inside the package was a dense wad of cash, more money than you’d seen in months. accompanied with it was a letter, written in beautifully loopy handwriting.

you shut it quickly before oikawa could see, stuffing the envelope deep within your pocket where you could access it alone in the depths of your room.

“do you wanna come eat? last i heard, bokuto and tsumu were doing a cooking competition and i’m sure it’ll be fun to watch.” you were severely thrown off by the money and letter but you were determined to show toorū that you’d accepted his apology and were on your way to making amends.

he gave you a shy nod and trailed behind you to the kitchen, the loud sounds of fire and screaming coming from down the hall. you wanted to focus on the fun and merriment but the envelope was practically burning a hole in your pocket.

later that night, you finally got the chance to open the letter and read it, your former manager’s words bringing tears to your eyes.

dear yn,

i’m probably the last person you expected to hear from. you probably didn’t want to hear from me at all if i’m being honest and i don’t blame you. i know there is nothing i can say that could make up for what i’ve done to you but i’d like to try.

i’m sorry. those words don’t nearly express in and of themselves how truly remorseful i am but they needed to be said. there’s no excuse for how i treated you — not meiko, not my stress, absolutely nothing.

you deserved my common decency and respect and i didn’t give that to you. instead, i abused my position and made your life hell. i’ll never forgive myself for that.

uh, i bet you’re wondering what the money is? i promise i’m not trying to pay you off, it’s just all the money i’ve denied you since you moved here. i have a lot of wrongs to right and this is one of them.

sorry, i’m not very good with words but i just wanted you to know that i’m very sorry for everything that i’ve done. and i’m in no place to make demands or anything but i just wanted to ask if you’d keep an eye on oikawa for me.

he’s strong but he’s also vulnerable. he might be a pain in my ass but he’s my best friend and since i can’t keep him from drowning, i was wondering if you’d do that - not for me but for him.

anyways, this letter is shit but i suppose you get the gist. use the money for whatever you want and if you’re as unselfish as i’ve heard, you don’t owe me anything. you don’t owe me money, kindness, or forgiveness.

take care of yourself,

iwaizumi hajime

℗ poker face

so... this is it

series masterlist

(●’◡’●)ﾉ

an - soooo m back :D hopefully this is the last of my mini hiatuses!! this chapter sucked to write but i’m not mad at how it turned out?? pls let me know how i did skjdkd don’t forget to feed me <3333

taglist - if your name is in bold, i cannot tag you

@boosyboo9206 • @geektastic84 • @elianetsantana • @trashy-simp • @infinitebells • @6mattsun9 • @suhkusa • @katsulovee • @kotarosbabygirl • @fucktheworlddude • @insomniacwreck • @calumsfringe • @saltylettuce • @chai-blu • @al3x1ss • @hawksyoongi • @syndellwins • @jooleuuh • @loubells • @kissungjae • @liberhoe • @tetsurocore • @animeoverdosee • @duhsies • @saikishairclip • @afire24 • @premiyagi • @kit-kat428 • @doctorspencereid • @daphnxy • @kyomihann • @maer-333 • @sinoflust19 • @peteunderoos • @peachiikichu • @iidanotlida • @yongboxerrr • @kac-chowsballs • @tanakaslastbraincell • @memorableminds • @risjime • @starry-magicshop • @sugavwara • @smuttyanimeslut • @kiwibirbs-library • @haijkk • @airybnb • @crybabygumi • @iwaisa • @decaffinatedtealover • @notameera • @kawaii-angelanne • @rintarovibes • @urlocalsimp

the rest of the tags will be in the replies!!

[babyboibucky]

The Match - Part 10

Pairing: CEO!Bucky x Fem!Reader

Summary: Sam helps you out in planning for the launch while Bucky is away.

Word Count: 4.2k (woopsies)

Warnings: SMUT is back, angry unprotected sex, spitting, a tiny hint at scratching and choking, some hurtful words thrown in yada yada yada, kinda intense asjkcackansk

A/N: STRAP THE FUCK IN BECAUSE WE BOUTTA RIDE A DAMN ROLLERCOASTER OMG I’m nervous for this because I found this part very intense while writing it. And I hope it comes across as that to y’all as well because my fingers ached from how hard I was typing this part lmfao. Team Bucky vs Team Reader/Team Sam here we goooo sksksk enjoy

The Match Masterlist || MAIN MASTERLIST

You didn't accept Sam's invitation to connect in LinkedIn. Not yet. But it did give you several ideas, like maybe submitting a resignation letter? Get away from Bucky and his toxic ass? He has Mackenzie now, he can easily have her take over your position anyway.

However, you were also torn because you loved your job at Bucky's company. It paved way for you to improve your skills and you experienced a lot of growth too. And well, Bucky's there too but god, you hated him right now. As much as you wanted to wave the white flag, you didn't feel like it was the right thing to do.

You wanted Bucky to learn that not everything he wants, he can easily get. And Mark was right, that you weren't just a trophy employee or whatever. You were so much more than what Bucky probably thinks of you.

And you were going to prove him that.

-

"Hey, Bev. Can you ring up your boss for me? Tell him I want to go over some of the plans I made for the launch before I discuss it with Mackenzie tomorrow." you asked.

Beverly was about to lift the phone up when an unexpected visitor arrived. None other than Sam Wilson himself.

"I didn't mean to eavesdrop but did I hear you correctly? You've already made some plans for the launch?" he asked with interest.

You chuckled, "Sort of. Well, it's a rough draft of my ideas. I just thought it would be nice to get a headstart." you admitted.

Sam nodded and was about to say something when Bucky stepped out of his office, his brows furrowing upon seeing you and Sam conversing. Bucky eyed you before glancing over at Sam, patting his shoulder gently as a greeting.

"You checking up on us or what?" Bucky teased with a chuckle.

Sam shook his head, "Not really. Well, kinda. I figured that another presentation would be unnecessary, I mean. I'd love to work on the launch with your team instead of being on the sidelines for approvals." he admitted.

You shrugged, "I think that's a great idea too. Less time to waste, less back and forth." you pitched in.

Bucky frowned a bit, his jaw clenching at how you backed up Sam immediately. "That's fine, but I have a meeting in a few. Might last the entire day. Mackenzie won't be here until tomorrow too." he said.

"She and I can discuss her plans today and maybe I can pitch in some of my ideas too. She can present them tomorrow to you and Kenzie." Sam suggested, gesturing over to you.

Bucky stared at you and Sam alternately, his hands balling into fists at his sides. You could see his internal struggle about leaving you and Sam to discuss about the launch, without his presence.

You lifted up the folder in your hand, "I wanted to go over these plans with you but I didn't know you have a meeting. Sam and I can just refine these today, would save us a lot of time. We don't want to be rushing anything for this project at the last minute." you told him.

Bucky swallowed but nodded anyway, albeit with hesitation, "Yeah. Of course. I'll just catch up on the both of you later."

And with that, Bucky walked away but not without sparing you and Sam one final glance. His eyes met yours for a brief moment and you weren't sure, but you saw a flash of worry in his eyes before it was immediately replaced by his usual stern, ice-cold gaze.

You turned to Sam with a smile, "We can discuss in the conference room." you said and led the way.

-

The planning was seamless and you were surprised that you had so much fun exchanging ideas with Sam, to the point of almost forgetting about lunch break. It was quarter past noon when the both of you realized that it was way past lunch time.

"Do you want to grab lunch or order something instead? I honestly hate working lunch, just so you know." Sam said with a laugh.

You groaned, "I hate that too, honestly." you admitted with a chuckle.

Sam nodded, "Great, we can head out for a quick lunch?" he asked.

It didn't even cross your mind to hesitate, so you immediately agreed and even asked if you can take Beverly with you. You'd grown somewhat attached to her in the short time you've known her. Poor kid was being treated like an outcast by the other office girls. She always waited for you to have your lunch break too, especially that Mark has been pretty busy lately.

Sam was kind enough to agree about including Beverly for lunch. The two of you were about to head out of the conference room when Beverly peeked in, worry etched all over her face.

"I need your help." she whined, "I think I messed up Sir James' schedule. Mister Nakajima is on the phone and said that he's going to be an hour late for a meeting today. I forgot about Sir James’ meeting with another company today!" she explained, almost close to tears.

You rushed over to her and held her shoulders, "Hey, calm down. Did you tell Mister Nakajima?" you asked.

"I did and he got mad at me! Today is his only free day and he said that if he doesn't meet up with Sir James, the deal is off." Beverly said, stomping her foot on the ground.

You heaved out a sigh, knowing that the deal was very important. Mister Nakajima owned an auto manufacturing company which produces world-class materials for cars. Bucky had been working on convincing Mister Nakajima to be his permanent supplier for quite a while now. Big fucking deal.

You looked back at Sam, "Hey, I'm sorry. Can you give me a couple of minutes?" you asked with an apologetic expression.

"Take your time." Sam nodded with a smile.

You went over to Beverly's desk and took over the phone call, without knowing that Sam trailed behind you. He watched you carefully as you talked to Mister Nakajima, your demeanor calm yet confident.

"Hi, Mister Nakajima. I'm the company's Marketing Head and I would like to apologize for the mix up. Bucky has been working really hard on improving the quality of our products, he's been in meetings in and out. That being said, would it be alright if I take over this afternoon's meeting instead? Bucky worked on an amazing presentation and I honestly would love to go over it with you and just show you how this partnership would be beneficial for both our companies." you asked.

Fortunately, you were able to appease Mister Nakajima while also saving Beverly's ass for her honest mistake. As soon as the call was done, you reassured Beverly that everything was fine now and that you'll take care of Bucky. By the time you looked back at Sam, he was merely smiling at you.

"You're really good with people."

-

Lunch break passed by quickly, with you, Sam and Beverly engaging in all sorts of conversations. Even Beverly felt comfortable being around his presence. He mainly talked about his experiences at his first job, giving Beverly a couple of tips on how to navigate through the corporate world.

Sam was very kind.

The planning resumed after lunch and by the time Mister Nakajima and his associates arrived, the launch plan was pretty much refined with a lot of details. Sam excused himself to give you time to meet with Mister Nakajima, however, he said he'll be staying until Bucky comes back.

Presenting to Mister Nakajima made you nervous as fuck, especially that he didn't really work closely with you which might affect his decision. Luckily though, you knew Bucky's presentation like the back of your hand due to the fact that he had gone over it with you for a couple of times back when the two of you were still, well, fucking around.

Ah, the good old days.

The meeting with Mister Nakajima went perfectly well because as soon as you were done with the presentation, the old man simply asked for the contract to seal the deal. Although it wasn't you who actually worked on the deck, you had a sense of fulfillment. You were proud of yourself and you couldn't wait to dangle it right in front of Bucky's face.

"Thank you so much, Mister Nakajima. We are excited for this partnership." you said happily as you led him and his associates out of the conference room, just as when Bucky arrived.

He looked confused when Mister Nakajima greeted him happily, shaking his hand and telling him how good his presentation was. Bucky looked over at you, as if asking what the hell was going on. You merely shrugged and headed back inside the conference with Sam.

Bucky followed shortly and for some reason, he looked agitated. He was about to speak up when Sam beat him to it, giving him a hard pat on the back.

"The launch event is gonna be really good." he said confidently before glancing at you.

"You're lucky to have her, Bucky." he said before bidding goodbye, giving you one last look and a wink as well, something that Bucky immediately noticed.

When Sam left, so did the light atmosphere inside the conference room. Bucky turned to you with a scowl, his footsteps rushed and heavy as he approached you.

"What the hell happened with Mister Nakajima?" he asked gruffly.

You smiled as you handed him an envelope, "The partnership is a go. He signed the contract and his team will be keeping in contact with us and our factory soon." you explained proudly.

Bucky took the envelope from your hand and went through the contract before placing it back on the table. "I thought my meeting with him isn't until Friday."

"Beverly mixed up your schedule and before you even reprimand her, give the girl a break. It's her first job and with the amount of meetings you've been having, mix-ups are inevitable. What matters now is that I took over the presentation and Mister Nakajima signed the contract." you explained with nonchalance.

Bucky shook his head, "The end does not justify the means." he said. "Beverly should have been careful. My schedule is not a joke and if I miss another important meeting, that can fuck up the entire company."

You rolled your eyes, "Calm down, Beverly surely learned from today's mistake. It's done. The deal is on. Everything is peachy. The launch details have been planned out, Sam is happy with it. All I have to do is to secure your and Mackenzie's approval for it and then we can start with the execution. You're welcome." you said all in one breath, handing Bucky a USB containing the details of the launch.

You brushed past Bucky to leave the conference room but you were immediately pulled back with his hand around your arm. He looked down at you with an angry look on his face, almost fuming. You couldn't understand why the fuck he was so aggravated with you today. Sure, he had been testing your patience lately but it was the first time he actually looked like he was going to snap.

Not at the situation, but at you.

"Are you trying to impress Sam? Taking on my responsibilities while he's around?" he asked, eyes narrowing at you.

You scoffed, unable to believe what Bucky was accusing you of. Pulling your arm back, you took a step back and looked at him with disgust. "You're unbelievable, Bucky." you said.

"Had I not stepped in, we would have lost the deal. You promoted me for a reason, and I believe part of it is my leadership skills. And no, I'm not trying to impress Sam. I'm simply doing my fucking job." you hissed and tried to side step Bucky, only for him to block your way.

"Did he offer you a position in his company? What the fuck was the wink all about?" Bucky accused yet again.

"Oh my god, Bucky! You're blowing things out of proportion. He didn't. We talked about the event. That's it." you explained, pinching the bridge of your nose because Bucky was getting on your very last nerve.

Bucky had been fucking with you too much now and you could feel the last bits of your composure slowly slip away with every word that was coming out of his mouth. Coming for your job was one thing, but accusing you of flirting your way to another company? That was a low blow.

"Don't lie to me, I saw the notification on your phone the other day. Seems to me like Tinder matches don't work for you anymore, you moved on to LinkedIn now to find connections instead?" he asked and that particular statement struck a certain nerve.

You let out a bitter scoff, "Do you even hear yourself, Bucky? At least Sam was being professional and didn't use Tinder to hire a fucking consultant to threaten my damn job!" you slipped, unable to hold back.

The look on Bucky's face was a whirlwind of emotions-- shock, wrath, exhaustion-- and you felt like you were supposed to get scared. Gone were the blue orbs that used to make you feel safe, his eyes only held anger in them. And the thing was, your eyes looked the same as you held Bucky's gaze.

You were so fucking tired of everything, of Bucky.

"How did you-- it doesn't matter." Bucky said, shaking his head. "How much did Sam offer you?" he asked.

Your jaw dropped at the implication of Bucky's statement, "You are a fucking asshole, Bucky. Sam didn't offer me a fucking job. You really don't listen, Bucky. You never listen." you huffed out exasperatedly.

"Okay, maybe he hasn't laid down his offer yet. Perhaps, you let him fuck you too?"

Your vision blacked out upon hearing that and by the time you regained your senses, all you could feel was how your palm stung. You had walked up to Bucky and slapped him right across the face, hard enough to make the corner of his bottom lip bleed. Your entire body was trembling from rage as you stood in front of Bucky.

He tilted his head as he wiped the blood off from his lip, looking up at you with lust-filled eyes. And then his hand gripped your neck, tugging you close for a bruising kiss. You grunted against his mouth and pushed him away, slapping him again. Before Bucky could even recover, your fingers wrapped around his tie pulling him down to you for another kiss.

Walls crumbled down, tension was broken and needs were being fulfilled. The rush of emotions blurred the line between fury and lust with the latter obviously winning. All you could think about was the throb that you suddenly felt within your core begging for relief.

Relief that was denied from you for the past few weeks of playing cat and mouse with Bucky.

And with the way Bucky was kissing you, you knew he felt the same. It had been too long and both your minds were too hazy to even care that it was only five in the afternoon and that there were employees working just outside the conference room.

Was the fear of getting caught going to stop you? No, not now. Because you needed release and you were sure as hell going to get it. This wasn't like the other times you and Bucky fucked. You didn't care about Bucky at the moment, how he felt or what was going on in his mind. You just needed to release all your pent up emotions and you were going to use Bucky to get what you need.

Bucky pushed you against the table, your tailbone hitting the edge with such force that made you groan from pain.

"Yeah, why don't you make some noise so everyone can see how fucking needy you are for me?" Bucky growled, gripping your face with one hand, forcing you to keep your eyes on him as his other hand bunched your skirt up to your waist.

You let out a chuckle, "I'm not the one going to make noise here." you warned before reaching down to palm his erection.

Bucky hissed and bit his lip hard to prevent himself from eliciting a moan. His jaw ticked as he squeezed your face tighter, forcing you to open your mouth as his eyes scanned your features.

"Watch your fucking mouth, baby. I still own you, you're fucking mine." he said through gritted teeth, his eyes lidded as he looked down at you like a predator.

You kept your mouth closed but as soon as Bucky's fingers found your damp panties, you weren't able to stop your whimper. Bucky took the opportunity and spit in your mouth before crashing his lips against yours in a messy kiss. It was all tongue and spit, the way he kissed you as his fingers rubbed at your folds through the thin fabric of your underwear.

He kissed you like he owned you.

"I'm not yours, Bucky." you said as your hands quickly unbuckled his belt, unzipping his trousers and pulling out his hard cock from the confines of his boxers.

The groan that reverberated from Bucky's chest as you stroked him made you smirk. His hand on your face slid down to your neck, holding you tightly as he pushed aside your underwear and then he slid into you with no prior warning. The lack of foreplay made it hurt when he bottomed out, but the pain quickly turned into pleasure when Bucky started moving his hips against yours.

No words were further exchanged from then on. Only soft whimpers and hushed grunts could be heard. However, it was clear that even up until now, there was competition. You didn't want to make noise, didn't want to lose to Bucky. You didn't want to give him the pleasure of knowing how fucking good he was making you feel right now, with how each drag of his cock was making your toes curl inside your heels.

Your hands held onto his broad shoulders as he fucked you against the table, the fabric of his suit bunching up against your fingers. Bucky kept his gaze on you and not once did you falter, not even when the tip of his cock hit your cervix, almost punching the air out of your lungs.

Bucky held the back of your thighs and lifted you up, sitting you on the edge of the table and bending forward so he could angle his cock in a way that you would feel it deep within you. Your legs automatically wrapped around his waist, one of your hands scratching at his jaw as he continued to pound your sopping cunt.

"God, fucking missed this pussy. Can feel you clamping down on my cock, you gonna cum soon?" he asked, pressing the tip of his nose against yours.

You clamped a hand over your mouth, muffling the wanton moan that Bucky pounded out of you. Not wanting to be the only one to make noise, you clenched around him hard. Bucky let out a growl at how your walls squeezed his cock, his balls tightening as his own orgasm approached.

"Cum for me, Bucky." you whimpered, tipping your head up to lick at Bucky's mouth as your legs tightened around his waist to pull him deeper into you.

Bucky exhaled heavily through his nose, the veins on his neck popping out as he fucked your harder on the table. He kept his hand wrapped around your neck while the other held onto your waist so tight, you could feel his fingers digging deep into your skin. Even with your clothes on, you were sure that you'll be getting bruises from how hard his grip on you was.

"Go on, Bucky. Want your cum inside, want to feel you fill me up again." you moaned against his parted lips, darting your tongue out to taste his mouth.

The needy tone of your voice sent Bucky to the edge first. He uttered a string of curses under his breath as ropes of his cum painted your walls with their warmth with triggered your orgasm. Your body convulsed as waves of pleasure ran through your veins, starting from your fingertips down to your toes. Bucky kissed you and swallowed your moans as his thrusts slowed down.

It took a while for the both of you to recover from the intense fucking. Bucky nuzzled your neck with his nose, his heavy breaths warming up your sweaty skin. There was a short moment of peace that followed, the tension gone and was replaced by a heavy feeling.

You swallowed hard and slowly regained your senses. The release cleared your mind and the memories of the heated exchange from earlier were quick to come back. Bucky's accusations echoed in your ear and they were so clear it almost felt like he was saying them to you again.

Suddenly, you doubted Bucky's intentions when he promoted you. Was he really impressed of your skills at work or was it because you let him fuck you?

"Get off of me." you said, pushing at Bucky's chest until he straightened up.

Ignoring the emptiness you felt when his cock slipped out of you, you hopped down from the table and started fixing yourself. In the many times you had slept with Bucky, it was the first time that you felt disgusted with yourself.

You turned your back to Bucky as you adjusted your underwear, pulling down your skirt and pressing your palms against the fabric to iron out the creases. Your breath was heavy as you processed what had just happened. And just like that, your reserve broke and the strong facade you had built crumbled down into pieces, leaving you vulnerable.

"Hey, are you okay? Did I hurt you?" Bucky suddenly asked when he heard your sniffing, the darkness in his features gone.

His eyes were back to blue and there was nothing but genuine concern when he saw the tears in your eyes. Bucky tried to approach you but you quickly backed away from him, your arms wrapping around yourself as protection.

"Did you hurt me?" you scoffed. "In more ways than one, Bucky." you quickly added, wiping away your tears hastily with the back of your hand.

You were about to walk out of the conference but decided that it was probably time for you to actually speak up about everything. How you felt for him and how much you hated him for coming at you like that.

"I was going to admit that I like you. I thought about it and figured that I was too proud and a bit selfish for not considering your feelings when I rejected you." you explained.

Bucky blinked in confusion, "What? When?"

You shrugged, "The day you brought in Mackenzie. And I was more hurt than mad that you did that. Because you knew how much this job means to me and you had used it against me. You basically took advantage of my weakness, for what? To get me to cave in? Even when I clearly told you how fucking scared I was of the consequences of whatever kind of relationship we have?" you huffed out.

You didn't allow Bucky to speak, not yet. Not until you were done making him understand why you had been so hell-bent on keeping things professional.

"I wasn't born into a rich family like you, Bucky. I had to work my way up to where I am. Unlike you, I have a family to support and if I lose this job, it's not only me who would suffer. And it won't be easy for me to find another one, not after the reputation I'd have once we get busted." you further explained.

"I told you about it so many times and I wish you listened. Because maybe we could've figured shit out. Or I don't know, maybe the fucking was too good and you only wanted me for that." you shrugged.

Bucky quickly shook his head, "No. God no, you're more than that."

You chuckled again, a fresh wave of tears flooding the corners of your eyes. "It most definitely felt like it when you accused me of fucking Sam."

"Fuck, I'm sorry. Let me explain, please? I didn't mean to, I was too--"

"No, Bucky. You didn't listen to me when I told you how I felt about us. Now you're going to know how it feels to not to get what you want." you sternly said before walking over to the door.

You turned back at Bucky and refused to let his expression get to you. He looked devastated, his eyes glassy from the tears he had been holding back, his lips parted as he finally realized what he had done.

"Expect my resignation letter by tomorrow. As soon as we're done with the launch, I'm out."

-

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[heavenlymorals]

Genuinely curious about the Bloodborne au idea. Do you mind giving us headcanons about it? Also wonderful moodboards

Hi anon! Thank you for the encouraging words ❤ Really helps out 😌

Also hell yea, I'm chock-full of headcanons for that thing 😈 Though keep in mind, if you are a Bloodborne lore enthusiast, that I'm taking a lot of liberties regarding lore. I mean, no ones entirely sure of canon lore anyways lol (warning: long ass post)

Ragnar

One of the first people to realize one of the terrifying possible side-effects of the holy blood of the healing church.

What do those side effect include? Mostly varying degrees of Lycanthropy.

Yea, not fun. So he becomes one of the first hunters to clean up the mess in Yharnam. His equipment and armor was makeshift but they worked well.

He took many people under his wing to train before the healing church deployed their own hunters, causing Ragnar's talents to be less needed.

It didn't matter though, because at that point, he became interested in greater things.

Greater things=Eldritch horrors

Terrible idea.

He did whatever he thought was best to find good sources for what he wanted to find. He found humanity to be pathetic compared to the cosmic power of the great ones. What would be better than acquiring such power and knowledge for one's own.

The Healing Church, Byrgenwerth, The infamous School of Mensis

He studied and worked with all of them at some point.

He needs that sweet, sweet knowledge, baby.

He probably did heinous things to aquire even a fraction of the Great Ones' (Lovecraftian Eldritch gods) knowledge.

Ultimately, he made a deal with an entity known as the Moon Presence that cost him his autonomy.

Oh no! I wanted to ascend humanity and got trapped in a lone pocket dimension away from every one and everything?

Hate when that happens.

The longer he stays there, he becomes more of a husk. It is only a matter of time before he goes mad.

Weapons- Hunter's scythe, Hunter's pistol

Aslaug

The late Queen of Cainhurst Castle.

She took the mantle after her seemingly immortal mother finally died (?)

Had Yharnam practically in the palm of her hands. Anywhere you go in that city, her connections are there.

People who fucked with her mysteriously disappeared.

Fucked up things happen in Cainhurst.

Anyways, one day, she met Ragnar while he was on his search for the unknown and became interested in him. This leads to stuff.

Ubbe's born! Yay :D Aslaug asked Ragnar if he wanted to become a King of Cainhurst but he denied it on the basis of his own ventures. He did stay from time to time to deep dive into the Cainhurst libraries for that sweet knowledge. Aslaug didn't think she had reason to stop him.

They had more kids though. Each time a boy was born, Aslaug becomes disappointment on the history that all the male heirs of Cainhurst meet an unfortunate end.

She tried to teach all her children everything she knew about the arcane and the Cainhurst blood magic. She made them use her blood when practicing so they wouldn't have to harm themselves.

Ultimately, the Healing Church stormed Castle Cainhurst and killed everyone because of their "repugnant" interpretation of the healing blood. Aslaug managed to have her children escape with her connections. She and everyone else was less fortunate.

Because she couldn't die (???), she was instead sealed away in a lone tower of Cainhurst by magic, forced to listen to the wails of her ghostly people down below for eternity.

The church obscured the location of Cainhurst. It didn't take long for it and Aslaug to be forgotten by the masses.

Weapons- Arcane and Blood Magic

Lagertha

Though not one of the first hunters, she was the first female hunter.

No one, not even those adamant on keeping the gender roles of Yharnam alive could deny that she was a phenomenal hunter.

Like Ragnar, she would take people under her wing to train for the hunt.

When the Healing Church monopolized the business of the hunters, that venture stopped, but she was still a distinguished hunter and continued hunting.

Though she works alongside the healing church in terms of cleaning up Yharnam, she doesn't really believe in their interpretation of the holy blood and the Great Ones. Her views align more towards insight of the great ones rather than the old blood.

She does find the Cainhurst interpretation vile. Especially the blood magic. She practically coined the term 'vileblood' before the healing church started using it to refer to Cainhurstians.

Not being a native Yharnamite, she was often greeted with mistrust from the citizens of the gothic city.

As she grew older and far more experienced, her priorities shifted from beast hunting to taking down those hunters who became drunk on blood and bloodlust.

There were many of them as the plague continued.

It was far more dangerous work, as blood-drunk hunters retain their intelligence but lose their morals.

She has met death far too many times and each time, she only barely escaped the clutches of the grim reaper.

Weapons- Blade of mercy, Hunter's pistol

Bjorn

As the son of Ragnar and Lagertha, it was practically destiny for him to become a hunter.

And holy shit, he is good at it. Scarily good at it.

At one point, he led his own posse of hunters throughout Yharnam.

This caused him to practically always butt heads with the Black Church hunters and the Knights of the healing church.

But the Church practically left him alone because, like Lagertha, he became a distinguished hunter who is very proficient at what he does.

He did become more aggressive as time continues. This, unfortunately, keeps Lagertha up at night. There is always a possibility that the aggression could be a symptom of blood-drunkeness.

It's not though, he just hates the beastly plague.

His first child, with fellow hunter Thorunn, who mysteriously disappeared one day, was shredded to pieces after she wandered too far from her caretakers and came in contact with a lone scourge beast.

His adopted son, Guthram, was killed by an abnormal beast. Bjorn was too slow to dispatch it.

After these incidents, he began to expand his services to the White church hunters instead of just the Black church hunters.

The white church hunters look for people who are suspected of having the plague. This leads to a lot of horrible inquisitions.

And death.

Bjorn doesn't really care though. He believes in stopping the beasthood in anyway possible and as soon as possible or else more incidents like Siggy's or Guthram's deaths will happen.

Weapons- Hunter's axe, Hunter's pistol

Ubbe

The first child of Queen Aslaug and the heir of Castle Cainhurst.

Obviously, that didn't happen, since the Church practically destroyed Cainhurst and its legacy.

A part of him is honestly grateful that he doesn't have the burden of being the heir of Cainhurst anymore.

Bad things happen at Cainhurst.

He just wished it didn't come at the price that it did. He'll never forget watching people he knew for a long time being slaughtered while he was rushed out of the castle with his brothers.

They escaped into Yharnam, right under the Church's nose, and with the assets that Aslaug had set in place, they could live without want.

Mmmm, no.

Ubbe was always fascinated with the knights of Cainhurst and always wanted to be one.

Obviously, he can't, so the next best thing is to become a hunter! He sought out Bjorn and paid him to teach him and his brothers everything he knew. Bjorn took some of the money offered but not all of it.

Ubbe was great at hunting. He would slice beasts left and right, and sometimes, the Yharnamites, despite their weariness for outsiders, would thank him.

One day, though, someone close to him succumbed to a level of beasthood. Ubbe couldn't bring it in himself to put him down like any other beast. Instead, he led him to old Yharnam and trapped him there.

This caused Ubbe to truly realize that all these beasts were once people. Loved ones.

He gave up hunting beasts after that. He stays in old Yharnam to protect the beasts there from the rooftops, and to stop any wandering hunter from killing them.

And during that time, he does whatever he can to hopefully find some sort of cure for the beasthood and its lycanthropy.

In his childish optimism, he doesn't realize how much the beasts suffer while they stay alive. He also doesn't realize how much he suffers while holding onto the hope that things will become better.

Weapons- Stake Driver, Hunter's pistol (He retained some of his skills in blood magic but will only use it in very tough situations.)

Hvitserk

The second prince of Cainhurst. While he was a prince, he would always mess around with the enthralled servants to see if he can ever get them to NOT work.

He would get into all manners of mischief. All the nobility of Cainhurst have had to deal with the aftermath of his pranks at least once.

Even the stone gargoyles that protected the place weren't safe.

Anyways, Just like Ubbe, he was fascinated by the Cainhurst Knights and when they escaped to Yharnam, he was adamant on becoming a hunter. Next best thing.

He and Ubbe worked well together and were their own little duo.

While Hunters like Ragnar, Bjorn, and Lagertha became distinguished hunters because of their experience and skill, Hvitserk became distinguished based on pure talent.

He was ruthless against the beasts.

They should be afraid of him, not the opposite.

But like many hunters before him, he became drunk on blood.

Yeah, that's not good.

He turned into a beast, but he was an abnormal beast. He had just enough insight of the great ones to not completely loose his humanity.

So basically, he's a werewolf.

He is responsible for the death of Guthram while he was in that frenzied, bestial state.

He is the reason why Ubbe refuses to hunt anymore and why he resides in old Yharnam.

When Hvitserk feels symptoms of this awful sickness overcome him, he seeks out sanctuary from Ubbe in Old Yharnam. Other times, he'd wait it out in the forbidden woods.

It is so painful being a beast. It hurt so bad.

So everytime he is able to resume hunting after transforming back to a human in Yharnam, he tries to kill as many beasts as possible to rid them of their pain

He is too scared to kill himself, and he is too scared to tell Ubbe to kill him. Telling the Church is a definite no because they'll make a spectacle out of him. Probably burn him at the stake.

Weapons- Saw Cleaver, Hunter's Blunderbuss

Sigurd

As a Prince of Cainhurst, he was very privileged to pursue things he was interested in.

And what did he like the most?

Music!

Aslaug practically filled out an entire room for him to practice various instruments, but only ones she deemed proper and elegant for the Cainhurst image. Sigurd never really minded that because he was in love with orchestral instruments anyways.

Wrote many pieces, but all those were probably destroyed after the healing church stormed Castle Cainhurst.

Everyone he knew besides his brothers were slaughtered and this weighed heavily on him.

Another part of him believes that Cainhurst had it coming. Bad things happen at Cainhurst.

Following his two older brothers, he also became a hunter.

He was a good hunter and had many kills under his belt, but he never found true satisfaction with it. No matter how many beasts he killed, more would take their place.

It was also very discouraging that the healing church would still do blood ministration despite how many people turned into beasts. He tried to get them to stop, but he always got too close to being found out as a Cainhurst Prince.

They'd burn him at the stake for sure, for that.

He'd help people where he could, such as giving away extra incense for people to protect their homes and ward off beasts.

He'd also give directions to safe chapels and temples where the beasts don't go.

When Hvitserk turned into an abnormal beast and Ubbe started to resign in Old Yharnam with the hopes of finding a cure for the beasthood, Sigurd just...left.

Bye bye Yharnam.

Honestly, smartest one there.

With its fanatic church, spooky (eradicated) vampire-like nobility, yucky beasts, and Cthulhu in the back? Fuck that place.

With his Cainhurst assets, he left and never returned. He left Ivar a letter to tell him that he was leaving since he never could find Ubbe or Hvitserk to give the letter to.

Weapons- Saw spear, Hunter's pistol. Occasionally blood magic too.

Ivar

When he was born, Aslaug saw his disability as a sort of omen for things to come.

She tried to find a sort of cure for him and once even entertained the idea of using the healing church's blood ministration. Nothing worked though.

As a byproduct, he is probably the most spoiled out of the brothers. He is also terrifyingly intelligent. The nobility of Cainhurst, even with how notorious they were, were wary of him.

When he and his brothers escaped Yharnam with the help of his favorite person in Cainhurst, Floki, he grabbed with him his father's notebooks and research. Momentos, if you will.

As he grew older, he made many connections and business deals in Yharnam. The Cainhurst assets helped a lot and, because he was smart about, he was never found out by the Church.

He practically owned a chunk of the city.

Not a mob boss, just a business man.

He did find the Church to be incompetent. Their loss of control of the holy blood and what they did to his family solidified that.

He found the hunters to be fucking incompetent.

That's not entirely true. He's jealous that he couldn't be one.

As a self-made scholar, he researched ways to "purify" the holy blood. This effort increased when he learned of Hvitserk's plight from Ubbe.

He hoped to practically take down the Church and render them null. Not cause he wants to help out the people of Yharnam not get infected by a plague that turns them to beasts, just cuz he's petty.

When he figured out that people who were aware of the cosmic truths did not delve into beasthood, his ambitions change. He also learned that the blood that the church uses in healing were artificial versions of the Great Ones' blood.

Went ape shit.

Dug out his father's notebooks/research.

Time to ascend humanity, guys! Ivar WILL square up with Cthulhu. Practically abandoned his original plans with purifying the blood.

Like Ragnar, his academic curiosity made him do...questionable things.

His insight made him see things unbeknownst to the normal person. He's slightly (very) mad.

The deeper he dove into his research into the Great Ones, the madder he became. Won't be long till he loses himself.

Weapons- The Evelyn, Blood magic/The Call Beyond

[harveywritings92]

BNHA Vampire soulmate au: they feed off you for the first time.

They explain to you how blood tastes to them and enjoy a meal... 

Tw: Blood drinking, heavy petting

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Hawks: It's been a year you and Keigo seem to be together, you've been talking about moving in together anywho, You got a paper cut and Keigo who was crashing at your placed smelled it from your living room, he nearly gave you a heart attack when you turned around to see him standing behind you, his gold eyes had red tinge as he eyed your finger like a like man who hasn't eaten in a week. "Ey, there I thought you've already had enough to drink today?" you were referring to the black and red sports bottle he'd brought with him. "I did, It's just- You have no Idea how hard I've been holding back, your blood it does something to me..." Keigo husked eyes locked on the crimson nectar dripping down your hand he was salivating and swallowed hard. "My blood...does it smell good?" you asked timidly.

The blond snapped out of his trance. "Petal, you smell like ripe strawberries and chocolate to me..." Keigo has already told you how smoker's blood smells and taste to him, well you now you were curious about non-smokers, and asked if blood type also has an effect on the blood's flavor? the winged vamp was happy to answer! 

Smokers: Charcoal/moldy bread.

Drunks: depends on how drunk they are, it's somewhere between hard soda and hard wine or liquor.

Drug users: no idea, he says they smell like rotten eggs, and he's seen how loopy other vamps act after feeding on them and stays clear of them.

Sick/injured: He stays away from sick people but they smell like a cross between a hospital or a funeral home.

Virgins: sweet/tart like fruit-punch.

regular folks: like Sangria the fruitiness is still there but it's mixed with bitter wine . 

"Blood types don't really change up the flavors, but I've noticed type As have a spice to them, Bs start off sour, and type Os are pretty mellow." You hummed very intrigued at what you were hearing then, noticed Keigo was still eyeing your finger, like a starved animal, you looked down at the cut then back Keigo and noticed his wings were tense and he was clenching his jaw, after some thought you sighed you held your hand out to him. "Go head before your jaw breaks" His wings bristled. "I'm not some desperate leech y'know." he huffed you shrugged and went to went to put a band-aid on, but Keigo stopped you.

"Let's not be hasty here..."  He stammered out at you cocked a brow at him. "Yer really giving me mixed signals here." you huffed did he want your blood or not? " Um... Are you sure about this?" he said blush adoring his cheeks. "I'm just letting you suck my finger...Why are you acting like I just asked you to pop my cherry?" Keigo's face was as red as a cherry as you said this. "Because you essenually are..." He explained the big difference between mates and prey, on instinct he wouldn't give a crap about some rando he picked up off the street or whatever mystery pack the commission gives him, but you... 

You're his soulmate, his fated one... and right now your pretty much telling him to make you his! He's not gonna stop at your finger, once he's had a taste he's going for your neck! And once he bites you that's it, you have his mark forever, You paused absorbing what the blond male just told you...Well, he hardly leaves you alone already might as well go all in? "Do it." Hawks's eyes were red now. "Come" he hissed sitting across from you and gesturing to sit in his lap.

You complied and watched Keigo warily as he brought your finger to his mouth, immediately you felt a shock go through you the second Keigo's tongue started lapping at the cut, he moaned tasting your blood for the first time. He was right you tasted every bit as sweet as he thought you would...*more...more...* his monster groaned euphorically he felt the cut on your finger close from his saliva's healing properties.

Keigo's eyes drifted towards your neck, You gasp feeling his grip on your hand tighten before his free hand found it's way behind your head, you tensed seeing Keigo's fangs elongate but before he could pierce your neck he smelled your distress.

His rough hold on you suddenly slacked and his hands lowered to your hips his thumbs gently rubbed you sides as he left little kisses and nip along your jaw before you calmed down enough to trust Hawks wasn't gonna tear your throat out. "Just relax." he cooed kissing you neck a couple more times like a countdown. one...two... three! 

You tried not to scream as you felt his fangs pierce your neck, your fingers gripped his jacket as you felt yourself be drained... then like a switch had been slowly tuned the pain tuned into pleasure? moans started sneaking their out from your mouth which confused you, the blond vampire groaned in ecstasy at how rich your blood tasted with lust mixed in he buck his hips against you, after what seemed like hours Keigo's fangs finally retracted from your flesh and lap at the two holes he left on your neck, they sealed as you whimpered weakly Keigo just shushed and you. "It's alright kid, you did good" he cooed kissing your head as you started drifting out of consciousness.   

When you woke up your head was pounding like a bad hangover Keigo was cradling you in his lap looking relieved and sheepish, he explained he went a little overboard with his drinking and venom dosing and you got drunk on him and passed out! you must've looked panicked cos Keigo assured you were completely fine, the venom isn't lethal... (To you anyways, one of the benefits of being a vampire's soulmate.) Though you might be a bit feverish and cranky for the next couple days.  

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Dabi: You were on your period so yes Dabi's self restraint was breaking! you had no fucking idea what you blood was doing to him you smelled like a 5 star meal and all he could do was sit and drown in his own drool and watch you, like a hawk as you moaned and groaned about  cramps and ruining your pajama shorts when you woke up this morning! a low growl escaped the faux raven haired vamp when he saw you toss out a bag with said aforementioned shorts, it took every nerve in him not to run after the garbage truck like a starved dog! before something you said snapped him out of his trance. "hn...What ya say?" he looked at you drinking his third pack of cow's blood.

"I asked if my blood smells good and what does it taste like?"

"I wouldn't know haven't tasted yours yet..."

"Well, what about anyone else's?" 

"Why are you suddenly interested?"

You huffed "Sorry for wanting to know you..." and were about to tell him to forget it, when the the undead cremator spoke up. "Mocha mixed wit' something spicy like cinnamon or rum" he muttered not looking at you. Of course you cocked a brow now intrigued, now that that was out of the bag he might as well tell ya the rest. 

Smokers: burnt rubber/earwax (eh, everyone was a kid once, had to know what that gunky crap in your ear tasted like.)

Drunks: Depends on how much they've drank, it could between hard water to straight up red wine.

Drug users: the one time he fed on one he thought they were just a pothead, but in turned out they had ate a few shrooms which made them kinda taste like... orange juice and black liquorice?... Honestly he can't give a straight answer, as he was too busy trippin out on another plain of existence to remember.  

Sick/injured: doesn't feed off the sick, but they smell like a hospital or a morgue.

Virgins: like apples and honey

Regular folks: they taste like Apple cider. 

Animal blood: kinda tastes like artificial cherry cough syrup, and he hates it!

"Then why do you drink it?" you gulped seeing his cerulean eyes flash red for a brief second as he locked eyes with you. "Why?...*growl* your standing in front of me smelling like a walking buffet and you have to gall ask me why I drinking this crap?!" he snapped crushing the blood pack in his hand as you started backing away, you were nervous that only fueled Dabi's sadistic side you learned early that he enjoyed agitating you via flashing his fangs, popping behind you out of seemingly nowhere, and faking you out.

I.E. making it seem like he was gonna bite you then blow air in your ears before walking away laughing at your reaction, something about putting you on edge and having your adrenaline pumping through your veins adds more "spice" to your scent, it happens so often that Dabi started noticing arousal was mixing in with your fear, you bet your ass he started mocking you for getting off on him scaring you. 

Of course right now you weren't sure if he was seriously mad, or making fun of you again? He was not making fun of you again he was seriously pissed off, The nerve of you walking around asking him about useless crap, and offering him nothing in return! Dabi had you backed against a wall face buried in your shoulder you felt him sniffing you and flinched you felt him nipping along your neck, and like all the other times he's riled you he smelled that that little speck of arousal through the fear. 

He let out a low chuckle causing you to to become fed up, you though he was screwing with you again! "Goddamm-.hm!" You were cut off by sharp yelp as Dabi's fang suddenly pierced your neck! oh god it hurt! you whimpered tried shoving Dabi off! he groaned pushing your back against the wall, suddenly your body felt weird... you moaned it was hot and and everything felt sensitive...

You barely registered Dabi lifting your legs up you instinctively wrapped them around his hips, he let out a low purr and his demeanor became less angry and forceful, his shoulders relaxed as his hands gently rubbed your legs, after what seemed like hours Dabi finally pulled away from your neck lapping at the pin holes he left on, he checked on you only to find you passed out his eye had a rare tenderness to them as he eyed your flushed appearance. "Well aren't you high maintenance." he cooed his thumb caressing you chin before taking you to bed.   

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Bakugou: He didn't want say what you smelled like to him as it made him look soft, he finally cracks after more poking a prodding. "If I fucking do will you shut up and let me sleep?!" he hissed it was 8: 47 p.m. and he was tired which confused you, the sun was still out and you could hear kids playing in the streets outside. You heard a angry growl Katsuki's ears were pink. "S'mores...you smell like S'mores, happy?" he groaned when you started shaking him, no point in trying to sleep now that he's lit the fuse! He gave you the sum up of what blood tastes like to him.

Smokers: old news paper and figs.

Drug users: No clue stays clear of them, they smell like pickled eggs.

Drunks: Somewhere between hard water and flavored vodka.

Virgins: Why would you want to kno-... arhg! Coffee and vanilla!

Regular folks: Irish coffee and bitter mint.

Then you you started asking about blood types and what it was when he drank, Next thing you knew Katsuki let out this frustrated bellow! You yelped as he grabbed your wrists and pinned you under him. "You wanna know what it feels like?" you sheepishly mumbled a meek "yes" but the blonds red eyes narrowed. "Hah? say that again I couldn't hear ya?" he jeered trying to get you to use your voice, you repeated "Yes" again a bit more forceful as the ash blond unbuttoned the shirt he let you borrow exposing your neck to him. 

Katsuki frowned he could smell your reluctance, then grumbled in annoyance as he recalled Shitty-hair's advice ""Take it slow, be gentle..."" He took a deep breath and carefully buried his face in you neck, You flinched expecting him to clamp down, giving how much you annoyed him, but to your surprise; Katsuki instead opted to started leaving kisses along your jaw and collar bone.

You bit back a moan when he found you sweet spot and causing Katsuki to smirk if wasn't so hungry and tired right now, he might've taken this much farther, but the mouthwatering scent of your blood calling him was too much to pass up. "I'm gonna do it" he husked as you nodded and with that, Katsuki's fangs pierced your neck.

You gasped in pain felling them puncture your skin as Katsuki grasped your hand, the blond groaned in euphoria your blood tasted every bit as rich and sweet as he thought it would, he could smell your discomforted and on instinct inject a doses of his venom into your bloodstream in minutes your blood's flavor intensified with added lust, your tiny moans and whimpers were music to his hears, soon his instincts were warning him stop.

Katsuki's fangs retracted he lapped at the punctures he left on your neck, before pulling away to look at you and snorted you were a flushed out mess. "That sate your curiosity?" he huffed fixing your shirt you tried to say something but were too exhausted to say anything tangible, the ash blond chuckled and settled down next to you for the night.   

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